Tales of Two
by reddevil47
Summary: Meet Sorey and Rose as they embark on a great journey too rid the world of malevolence and create a world where seraphins and humans can live in peacefully. they will face many challenges along the way but as long as they have each other and their friends they can triumph over anything. Retelling of the tales of zesteria story.
1. Chapter 1: The merchant and ruin geek

**Hey what's up guys, I just finished Tales of Zesteria and loved the game but wasn't too fond of the ending. Anyway I loved the dynamic of Rose and Sorey even if they didn't have any romance going on so I thought, let me make a story where they do have that romance dynamic. It's basically a different take on the story, how far am I going to stray from the story? I'm not really sure on that, depending on how I write it up will decide that. As far as grammar and overall quality of the story its, don't expect much from me, I'm not a serious writer so this is the best it's gonna get for some time, I just wanted to post on fanfiction cause I thought it'd be fun. If you aren't able to read the story because of my grammar and writing quality I apologize but if you don't mind the mistakes then feel free to read and leave a review. P.S Rose and Sorey are going to be shipped hard of course**

 **Edit 4/20/2016: ive made some changes with this chapter mostly just fixing some grammer issues to the best of my ability and changing companion to Squire(don't know why I forgot that lol)**

 **Edit 5/7/2016: I had thought i put up the re edited version lol, well here it is now**

 _ **Tales of Two Chapter 1: The merchant and ruin geek**_

"Hmmm, the map says it should be somewhere around here." A young man that looked probably in his 20's was holding a nicely designed book as he looked around the cave. He was a tall young man, probably 5'11, wore a black shirt, black pants and white boots. Wore a long blue unbuttoned trench, had brown hair, green eyes and wore yellow feather earrings. He walked around the ancient ruins trying to find an artifact he had spent the last two weeks tracking down. The young man looked around at each wall trying to find out where it would be. The place despite bing a cave had a lot of rock formations that required climbing gear.

"C'mon think." He said to himself. That's when he decided he's been looking in all the wrong places. He looked high up and that's when he found it, only problem was it is so high up.

"these people never make it easy for me do they." The young man chuckled. He put down his pack and took out his grappling hook. He swung the grappling hook a couple times and then threw it at the top on the edge of the wall; he pulled down hard a few times making sure the line was secure. He clipped the rope to his waist; before he climbed the wall, he took out a hammer, a pick along with his hard hat putting it on. He always prepared himself for the ruins; you never knew what dangers could be around. He put his tools in his satchel and climbed ascending the wall to the top where the orb was. He took out his pick and started to get to work carefully removing the blue orb, the young man didn't know it at the time, but this orb was about to change his fate and somebody else's, a fate that would be vital in the world being saved.

* * *

"Rose, if were done in this town then why are we still wasting time here?" A young petite woman who looked about 5'3 turned around to the person that called her. She had pink short hair, wore a pink and gold tunic, and over that tunic was a black and white crop jacket. She had on white form fitting pants that were tucked into her black heels. She also had twin daggers on her hip.

"C'mon, you don't want to spend some time here, we deserve a break once in a while." Rose giggled as she took off into town. The guy shaked his head but chuckled as he watched her go. A girl came up to him and smacked him on the shoulder.

"That's our boss, always doing what she feels like doing." She said

"Yep no stopping her." he chuckled as they went back to their carriage.

Rose walked across the vibrant town taking in the sights. Her traveling merchant crew had stopped by to sell some of their goods. They sold a lot which was very good as they needed the extra funds for their side job. Rose giggled as she saw a couple boys playing with wooden swords pretending to be soldiers, Rose wouldn't openly admit but she had a soft spot for children. Despite the annoyances children could bring she believed that they were joys of the world that should be cherished and kept away from the many horrors it can bring; at least until they needed to grow up, but sadly she knew it wasn't like that. Instances in life lead people, even children to commit crimes and other acts of injustices and sometimes you couldn't save them until it was too late. Rose was distracted from her thoughts as she bumped into somebody. The person she bumped in to caught her by her shoulders making sure she didn't fall. She looked up and saw it was a young man with brown hair and green eyes.

"Oh sorry miss, I'm in a rush so no need to apologize yourself." He said quickly moving along. Rose stared back at him noticing he wasn't like the others here. The main giveaway was his huge traveling pack, who knew what he carried in there, the second was his sword. Rose couldn't help but get a certain feeling about him as he passed by. He definitely wasn't from here but she was interested in what he was doing so she decided to tail him. Her instincts were never wrong, well most of the time. After he bought a couple things from one of the stores in town she tailed him for the next 20 minutes through the forest until he finally stopped upon an old ruin.

"What could he want here?" Rose wondered hiding behind a boulder. She saw the man take out a map. He nodded his head and put the map back in his sack as he walked into the ruins. Rose followed slowly behind; the man looked around the ruins amazed by the sight of it. Rose herself was impressed by the ruins but probably not as excited as he was, he looked like a child that just found a mountain load of candy. She chuckled on the inside as she watched him study the designs of the wall. That's when he took out a book which looked like…..

"Celestial records." Rose mumbled. She wondered what he would be doing with a book that was meant for children, well at least most children tended to read it. The book was mostly composed of myths about Seraphim and other things but what would he need that for. He looked frustrated as he was moving from one place to the other; he looked like he was trying to find something. He stopped for a moment and got into what Rose would call his thinking position. The man stood there for a good minute before looking up and smiling in joy. Rose looked up herself and stared at a very colorful orb that was locked in the wall. Rose was impressed, that orb looked amazing and Rose was already thinking about maybe buying it from him and then reselling it at a higher price. The man got some things out of his bag as he put on a hard hat, brought out tools and a grappling hook. He hooked himself up and walked climbing to the top near the orb. He use his tools to take the orb out of the wall but surprisingly enough the orb slipped out easily.

"Oh no!" he yelled as he tried catching it but failed. Luckily Rose came out just in time to catch the orb. The boy looked down surprised, but then sighed in relief that it wasn't broken.

"Got it!" she yelled up at him. The man scaled himself down and removed the harness off of him. He took off his goggles and smiled brightly at Rose.

"I'm assuming you're not going to give that back." the man chuckled as he crossed his arms at the girl

"I'll give it back but I actually want to buy this from you." Rose chuckled to him as she looked at the orb

"Oh, so you want to buy it from me huh? Could I at least get the name of my buyer?" the man said as he packed up his stuff.

"The name's Rose Valentine and you?" She brought out her hand as the man brought out his shaking it back.

"Sorey Whick." Sorey said back. She smiled back at him as she moved to lie back against the wall. Sorey rubbed his goggles clearing them of any dust before he redirected his attention back to Rose. He crossed his arms as he looked at the orb she was holding in her hands, he didn't actually want to sell what he had just found but he decided to hear what she was offering, maybe it'd be worth his while.

"So what price are we talking here?" Sorey asked

"5,000." She said. Sorey chuckled which caused Rose to look at him weirdly. She thought that 5,000 would be a good starting price.

"50,000." he said. He couldn't help but smirk at the look she gave him.

"50,000! Are you crazy!" she yelled stepping up to him. Sorey put his hand up stopping her advance.

"Woah woah, that's not just any orb your holding." He said pointing at the orb. Rose looked at the orb and then back at him an angry look on her face. She knew this orb was special but it couldn't have been that special. Sorey smiled and went into his bag and took out the celestial record.

"How is a children's book going to convince me that I should buy this from you for 50,000!"

"Just look." Sorey said as he turned pages until he finally stopped at a page with a picture of the orb. She leaned into him looking closely looking at the page that had the picture of the orb.

"Look here, this isn't just any orb, its one of the iris gems. These gems aren't only cool to look at but also contain past memories, all dating back to maybe even pre asgard times!" Sorey said excited. Rose looked back at the orb and the book. She had to admit it looked just like the picture and it was in this old ruin. It was probably worth maybe even more than 50,000 if it held the memories of the past, looks authentic enough. She could re-sell it for a high price, but Rose wouldn't be a good merchant if she couldn't barter.

" 20,000." she said

"40,000."

"25,000 and I won't go any lower, you want to know why?" She asked as she handed the orb back to Sorey

"And why's that?" Sorey held the gem looking at it intently before looking back up at Rose.

"Now you could probably go and sell it to any random stranger but I guarantee it won't sell for more than 10,000 at the most, you wanna know why ?" Rose smiled at his confused look wondering what she was getting at.

"See I run a traveling merchant shop, we deliver, sell, and buy various things for all kinds of prices, and we are known pretty well and have a name for ourselves, now you on the other hand ." She stepped up to him standing very close looking up trying to assert her dominance and make him worry. It didn't seem to be working on him but she trusted her words to get the job done.

"You seem to be traveling by yourself, I'm pretty sure you don't present much credibility since it doesn't seem like your much of a merchant, your bag mostly holds your personal stuff and tools, and last but not least, you look way too nice to charge a lady like me that much money." She chuckled winking at him. He blushed a bit but chuckled at her last sentence, _she is a funny one_ Sorey thought.

"Wow your good, been doing this for a long time haven't you. Most of my stuff I've only been selling at the most 7,000." Sorey said laughing.

"Yep, you can't beat me at my own game." She said proudly with her hands on her hips.

"Now I don't have the 25,000 on me but I can go back to my-"

"Oh I'm not selling it." Sorey said cutting her off

"Wait what!?" She said confused, he just admitted to being outbid and he's not selling it

"I just did that to see how high you would go; it was interesting seeing you barter like that. Thought it'd be fun you know." Sorey laughed turning his back to her. Rose could not believe that he had just played her; she wasted all the time trying to buy an unbuyable product. _Nobody makes a fool out of Rose Valentine._

"You little!" She jumped on his back immediately clawing at his face

"Ouch! Sorry it was just a joke, be careful you might make me drop!-" Rose wasn't listening at all as she was still on his back clawing at his face. The orb in Sorey's hand dropped to the floor. Sorey noticed but Rose didn't as she was still clinging to his back attacking his face. The whole ground suddenly shook stopping the twos action, the place started crumbling, rocks started to fall from the ceiling.

"Get down!" Sorey pushed Rose to the ground and dove on her protecting her body from any falling rocks. While the two waited on the ground, they did not notice the wall the orb was originally on was being opened as it divided revealing a pathway. Once the door stopped moving the rumbling stopped as well. Sorey opened his eyes and looked up to see if it was safe to move but found something else entirely different, he was astounded by the pathway that had just opened up. Rose opened her eyes and looked around to see if it was safe also; she then looked up at Sorey and saw he was looking to his left. She looked to her left also and saw the cause for the earthquake in the ruin. A new pathway opened up in the walls, she saw that Sorey had that same look of amusement on his face. She growled and pushed him off of her.

"Whoops sorry, just amazed. This door must have not been opened in a very long time, so I guess the movement must have caused the structure of this place some stress, but now we know something was hiding here all this while, why just think of what we could find I mean-". Rose covered his mouth as he looked like he was about to go on a rant, and she did not need to hear that.

"Ok you ruin geek, how about you stop yammering and help a girl up". Sorey got up and then took Rose's hand and helped her up.

"Sorry about that." He chuckled rubbing the back of his head

"Well that was eventful, what the heck happened?" Rose asked

"The orb must have been some sort of key to open up the doorway, guess we got lucky when I took it out".

"We, I'm not going down there!" Rose poking his chest making it clear she was not going down there

"It was merely an invitation but me. I'm gonna go down there and find out, it was nice meeting you . You can have the orb, I don't think it's a real iris gem anyway, we would have saw something by now. Maybe you can barter someone into believing." Sorey threw the orb to her; she caught it and looked back at Sorey as he walked into the new pathway. Rose watched him go in before deciding to leave the temple. As Rose was leaving she stopped at the entrance of the ruin and looked back, she couldn't help but get a bad feeling and Rose was never wrong about her bad feelings, and also she couldn't help but get a weird feeling about leaving Sorey by himself, she sighed and ran back to catch up to him.

* * *

"So you've been traveling for the last 5 years, exploring and plundering ruins." Rose said as they were walking through the place

"Yep, I've been getting by selling some of the small times things I find, takes a lot of bartering though, wish I had your skills." He said as they both laughed. Sorey was explaining to Rose about why he travels around and as she would put it " _Plundering ruins_ " because it's what he likes to do. Now that he thought about it, he's been traveling for a very long time. Sorey thought back to his home where all his friends and family were from. It's been a quite a while for him. He has thought about going back from time to time but like everybody else, life tends to have different plans for you.

"So where are you from Sorey?" Rose asked.

"Not sure if you heard of the place." Sorey laughed "but it's called Eleysia".

"Elysia?" Rose questioned pondering on where that could be. She's been all over these lands but has never heard of a place called Elysia.

"Is it a small village?" she asked.

"Yea, guess we wouldn't be known then." He chuckled.

"What about you Rose, where are you from?" Sorey asked.

"Well I don't really have a home per say. I guess you could say it's more of a home on the go since I'm a traveling merchant. So wherever my family goes is where my home is." She smiled

"That's a nice way to think about it, home is where your most comfortable ey?"

"So your most comfortable in these ruins then?" She said making a motion of the place around them. Sorey laughed at her answer.

"I wouldn't say that, but it's a second substitute. Though I probably wouldn't want to sleep here, I mean just anything can jump out at you." He joked. Just as he said that a giant spider had jumped in front of Sorey. He stopped in his tracks and pushed Rose back behind him, he unsheathed his sword and readied himself.

"Sorey why did-"

"Rose stay behind me, do you see what I'm seeing?" Sorey asked her.

"What I don't see-" She couldn't finish her sentence as something had moved through the air and pushed Sorey back as he used his sword to block it. She knew something was there and Sorey was not faking it, but what could it have been.

"Damn, is this what I think it is!" Sorey yelled as he striked the spider making it back up.

"What!? What is it!?" Rose yelled worried. She had brought out her twin daggers ready to fight whatever invisible monster Sorey was fighting.

"Sorey where do I hit it!"

"Well not even my attacks are working on this thing!" Sorey saw his blade was barely doing a thing against it. The spider jumped at Sorey knocking him down. Sorey held his sword up against the spider as it was trying to bite at him. Rose watched as Sorey was knocked on his back by some force. She didn't see what got him but merely a gust of wind that had knocked him back.

"Sorey I don't know what I'm hitting but I hope I don't hit you!" She started to attack the spider despite not seeing it, she was surprised herself that she had hit something and not Sorey. The spider had jumped off of Sorey backing up once again. Rose helped Sorey up as they readied themselves for another attack. Rose had started to see something form in front of them, it flashed once showing a spider, and it did this a couple more times until she could finally see it, and that's when Sorey's ears started ringing as he heard Rose's ear piercing scream.

"W-w-what is that!" she yelled.

"I believe it's a heliion." He explained.

"A hella what?" Rose did not understand what he said. To her it was just a giant spider but their attacks hadn't done a thing against it.

"Basically it's going to be hard to take it out but I have a plan, just follow my lead!" Sorey charged at the spider swiping it and blocking its attacks. Rose had joined in attacking the spider also. Sorey and Rose had backed it up near a wall and that's when Sorey charged at the spider moving it back and pinning it against the wall with his sword.

"Now Rose!" He yelled. Rose ran up to the spider and stabbed it with her daggers with all her strength as she penetrated it's under belly. It gave out a cry as it slid to the floor unmoving.

"We * _pan_ t* did it." Sorey said through pants.

"Yea* _pant_ *never again." Rose said panting. Sorey smiled at her and raised up his hand. Rose smiled back as they both clapped their hands. As they were celebrating they didn't see the spider slowly get up. Rose looked back to the spider and saw it had got up.

"Sorey it-". Before she could warn Sorey the spider had charged at him. Sorey noticed it just in time to avoid it but the spider had swiped his arm leaving a deep cut.

"Agh!" he cried in pain as he fell back. The spider hissed at the two before retreating to who knows where.

"Sorey!" Rose yelled as she knelt by him checking his wound.

"Im fine, just a cut." He assured her, but it did not sound very convincing to Rose.

"That is not just a cut!" She scolded him. She reached into her pouch and brought out a salve and a small vial. She poured the vial on Sorey's cut making him wince.

"Don't be a baby." She put the salve on his shoulder and then brought out some wrap to put around his arm.

"And done." She poked his forehead playfully.

"Thanks." He smiled. Rose sat down next to him as they decided to rest for a bit after that encounter.

"So what was that, a hell what?" Rose asked.

"A hellion, it's a monster made of malevolence. I've been told of their existence but I never thought I'd ever encounter one" Sorey explained.

"Well how come that monster was invisible at first, and why were you able to see it right away?" Rose asked. Sorey wasn't sure how he was going to explain this to her, he knew why he was able to see it but he was baffled at the fact Rose did indeed see the hellion which she should not be able to.

"Well that's a bit hard to explain but ill just give you the short version." Rose stared intently at him waiting for his explanation.

"Well lets just say that I grew up with people who were able to see creatures like this and I guess that their ability to do it rubbed off on me." Sorey chuckled. He hoped she had bought the explanation; it was true in some sense. Judging by the look on her face it looked like she had her doubts but she sighed and accepted the explanation.

"Ok but that doesn't explain why im able to see them."

"Hmm that's a good question." Sorey put his hand to his chin as he got into as Rose would call, his "Thinking Pose". _It doesn't look like she has had any contact with any type of Serpahin in her travels, but even then that Seraphin would have had to stay with her for some time. She could just have a great affinity for this but that seems unlikely._

Rose couldn't help but stare at Sorey as he was thinking intensely; she thought that he looked cute doing that, her cheeks went red at the thought of that. Sorey brought a fist down to his palm breaking Rose out of her trance. It had seemed he found an answer.

"So you know why?" she asked.

"Nope not a clue." He chuckled. Rose hit him on his head in annoyance. This wasn't something to joke about.

"Hey don't make light of this, something freaky just happened and I don't think I want to see more of these hellions in the near future".

"I'm sorry but I really don't know why you can see them." Sorey rubbed the back of his head to soothe the pain Rose had just inflicted on his cranium.

"Even so what makes us so special that we can see them, its not like were the Shepherded and his Squire." Rose complained.

" **INDEED YOU ARE NOT, NOT YET ANYWAY. "** A voice boomed throughout the whole place. Rose yelped and immediately drew out her dagger. Sorey got on alert and drew his sword carefully minding his shoulder.

"W-w-what was that!"

"I don't know, show yourself!" Sorey yelled.

" **YOU DO NOT NEED TO FEAR ME YOUNG ONES, I SHALL PRESENT MYSELF."**

There was a bright flash causing Sorey and Rose to shield their eyes, as soon as the light disappeared there stood two people in front of them, a man and a woman. The man was dressed in a long white garb with a mask covering his face with dirty blonde hair reaching his shoulder. The woman had a white garb too though hers were a bit more form fitting, she also had a mask similar to the mans, she had long blonde hair but it could not be seen all the way due to her hood.

"Who are you guys?" Rose asked as she inched closer to Sorey. She didn't know what was happening and Sorey was not in fighting condition due to his shoulder.

"If possible I would like to avoid another fight" Sorey pleaded. He didn't know this man but he wasn't giving off any bad vibes.

"Do not worry young ones, you have been chosen for a very important mission" the woman spoke. She had a very soothing voice, one that seems like it could calm down a raging dragon.

"And what would that be?" Rose asked. The man looked to the woman, she nodded back and looked to the Rose and Sorey.

"You have been chosen to be the Shepherd and his Squire" He spoke. It took Sorey and Rose a bit of time to register what they had just said until they finally realized what had just happened.

"Huh?" they both said.


	2. Chapter 2: The age of Chaos

_**Here's the next chapter, as far as updates go, I basically update whenever I have the time, once again excuse the grammar and other things, I try to fix it as I go along and I will sometimes re upload the chapter to fix some of these problems but like I said, don't expect too much from me, now enjoy the chapter guys.**_

 _ **Tales of two: The age of Chaos**_

"Wait so what your telling me is were going to be the next Shepherd and his Squire! That's impossible!" Rose yelled. Sorey couldn't help but nod in agreement. He could not believe the turn of events that had just happened, he only came her for the gem. It seems that led to meeting Rose, fighting off a hellion and now he and Rose were being proclaimed as the next Shepherd and his companion.

"I have to agree with Rose, this all sounds ridiculous. Also the last Shepherd and his Squire have not been seen for the last 200 years, what makes you think we are the next in line?"

"Then I guess we will have to show you, follow us." The man motioned for them to come as he and the woman started walking down the corridor.

"Should we follow?" Rose asked.

"I don't think we have much of a choice, besides I'm kind of interested in what they want to say." Sorey smiled at Rose as he left to follow them. Rose looked at the mysterious man and woman still contemplating on whether or not she wanted to follow these strangers, but like last time she gave in because she didn't feel like leaving Sorey behind.

"Oh so you're coming after all." He chuckled.

"Well I can't you leave you can I, you just might hurt yourself again." She flicked his ear playfully. He mocked a hurt expression as he rubbed his ear making Rose giggle. He chuckled at their playful banter. The mysterious man looked behind the two and smiled before turning his attention to the front. The woman smiled at his reaction to the two as she knew he was thinking what she was also thinking. They stopped upon a wall that at first sight looked like just a wall. The man put his hand to the wall and pushed a brick revealing a secret entrance.

"Hmmm, how cliché." Rose commented.

"A cliché that still works." The man added. They all entered the room. Sorey and Rose's jaws literally dropped when they saw the place they entered. Despite the size of the place, the whole room was literally white, almost blinding. The marble floor was amazing and the room was decorated with all sorts of assortments but the most eye catching part was the huge statues of what looked like the previous Shepherds.

"Amazed." The man chuckled.

"This place is, I can't even describe how amazing this is. How can it even stay looking like this, this whole ruin is pre asgard times, oh man! This definitely has to have magically properties, it should have eroded or decayed a long time ago, but yet it stays up, in fact-" Rose covered his mouth once again to get him to shut up.

"Sorey shut up, you're ruining the moment." Rose moved her hand away from his mouth and then grabbed Sorey dragging him along to the man and the woman.

"Ok I guess maybe this helps your story." Rose declared. You'd be a fool to deny something like this actually existed. "But it doesn't mean that we will willingly accept being the new Shepherd and his squire." Rose said.

"Well it would be pretty cool-OUCH!" Sorey yelped in pain as Rose put pressure on his bad shoulder. "She's right; you'd be asking us to give up a lot of things." Rose smiled at Sorey backing her up, Sorey on the other hand was starting to realize how menacing Rose could actually be, and he would have to watch out in the future. He couldn't help but notice Rose still had her arm around his. Sorey liked the way Rose would touch him, it just felt right, like putting a piece in a puzzle. In fact since he met her he felt really comfortable around the girl, like he has known her for years.

"Sorey are you listening?" Rose asked as she looked up at him.

"Huh?" Sorey said. He just realized he wasn't paying attention.

"Sorey, he asked you a question?" Rose said.

"Oh sorry what was the question?" Sorey asked.

"Sorey how much have you seen on your journey?" He asked. Sorey raised his eyebrow confused, what an odd question to ask him, what did his travels have to do with anything?

"Well if you're asking, my journey has been fun, interesting, it could get even rough at times" he thought laughing.

"But you must have seen some things during your journey".

"Yea a lot of things actually, some great and others well" Sorey stopped talking as a frown came upon his face as he looked down. Rose saw he had a sad look on his face. It looked like he was remembering some things from his journey that he wasn't proud of.

"Others were just downright awful."

"Would you say that you tend to see it a lot, does the air and atmosphere feel different as you move from place to place, other places feel clean while others are depressing and sad." The man explained

"Yea actually it felt just like that" Sorey nodded.

"I'm assuming you the same Rose" the woman said.

"Well now that I think about it, I have come across some awful things in my travels, I just put it off as something regular but I always had a feeling there was more to it, like some force working in the shadows, and my gut is never wrong." She said sadly. "But what does that have to do with anything". The women brought out a glowing orb that looked just like the iris gem they had found; in fact they were pretty sure it was a iris gem.

"Woah is that an-"

"Yes an actual iris gem Sorey, we know we can't force you to take on this task but we would like to show you the history of the world due to malovelence, would you please both put your hands on the orb." Sorey looked to Rose and shrugged.

"Why not, you will never get a chance like this again." Sorey walked towards the woman and put a hand on the gem.

"Well fine but, this is all weird anyway." Rose stepped up reluctantly to the orb; there wasn't enough room for both hands to fit so she just placed her hand over Sorey's. They stay liked that for a few seconds waiting for something to happen but nothing was happening.

"So when are we supposed to see what you want to show us, nothing is happening." The moment Rose said that the room turned black, and that's when she started seeing images of what looked like a war. She looked to her right and saw Sorey's shocked face as he was also watching what was going on.

"Sorey what is this?" Rose asked stepping closer to him.

"I think this is the last great war, I remember reading about it. It was said this was the worst war waged in history, thousands of soldiers died in this war, I've always pictured it being bad but seeing it for yourself is just-."

"Horrifying." Rose said.

"A lot of books have explained that the cause of this war was due to politics and the depleting recourses." The man explained.

"Yea I know, the Rolance Empire blamed Hyland for occupying so much of the farmland and demanded they offer help, sure I understand times were rough but I find it hard to believe that the Hyland ruler denied help to Rolance, he was known as a benevolent ruler up until the fighting started." Sorey said.

"A ruin geek and a history nerd I see." Rose joked as she nudged his shoulder. Sorey couldn't help but chuckle, he couldn't deny that, history was something that sort of went hand in hand with ruins so learning the history of the world was also something he took great interest in; he needed to know these things also.

"Sorey is right, the ruler of Hyland wasn't in his right mind." The man said.

"This war was started because of malevolence, it seemed a powerful hellion took control of the ruler and caused the war on purpose, same thing with the ruler of Rolance." Rose and Sorey were shocked to hear that.

"Wait but how? The hellion we fought looked like a spider, it didn't seem like it could control us." Rose asked.

"That was merely a weak Hellion, there are much stronger hellions out there, ones that can influence wars." The woman in white said regarding the last war between Rolance and Hyland.

"But the war was stopped once they realized both nations were losing a lot more fighting the war, and surprisingly enough resources started returning to the lands."

"You can have the Shepard to thank for that, he along with their squire and seraphin were able to stop the malevolence across the land, and the land of Zesteria was put into another age of peace."

"Sadly as the saying goes." The woman said.

"History is doomed to repeat itself." Sorey finished.

"You know now that I think about it, some of the places my merchant guild have passed by, the towns seem to have been low on crops, some none at all, we had to go to big cities a lot to sell but even then, there was some kind of problem." Rose noted.

"Yes and this is due to malovelence, the age of chaos has arrived and will only get worse from her on out, all this can only be stopped by the Shepherd and the squire."

"Now Sorey and Rose, this is the last time we will ask, you saw what could happen if there is no Shepherd and Squire to stop this crisis, even now I'll be honest, not just anyone can be the Shepherd and Squire." The woman explained.

"Wait but you said we w-." Sorey started but

"Yes we said you were because we believe that you guys truly are the right ones, but the true test to officially become the Shepherd and his Squire comes from the lady of the lake."

"The lady of the lake, she's real?" Rose questioned.

"Indeed she is, she is the one that can grant you the power of purification. That's the only way to cure hellions without killing them."Arthur explained.

"Wait why wouldn't we want to kill them, aren't they evil?" Rose questioned.

"Do you know what Hellions were before they were hellions?" The woman asked. Rose shaked her head not knowing but Sorey knew, he knew well.

"There either human or seraphin." Sorey answered.

"Wait what!" She carried a shocked looked on her face as her gaze went to Sorey. How was it possible that those beings used to be a person? Sorey was hiding something, the fact he knew this confirmed it.

"Yep, that's why purification is so important." Sorey explained to Rose.

"Then that spider we attacked, was once a person?" she thought sadly.

"Oh don't worry the spider wasn't real, it was merely a test." The man explained.

"What! That was cruel, we thought we were gonna die!" Rose yelled.

"Don't worry we wouldn't have let that happen."

"But my wound?" Sorey pointed out.

"Feel it now?" the woman asked. Sorey touched his wound and was surprised, it didn't hurt at all.

"Wow it's gone, like it was never there." He said marveled.

"So it was all really just a test?" Rose said a bit skeptical.

"Yes it was all a test and if you ask me you guys passed it wonderfully, now are you willing to take the final test, we truly believe in all of our hearts that you guys are the ones that can bring the end to this age of chaos." The man said. Sorey and Rose looked at each other both still seeming skeptical about all this, it's not every day one is suddenly pronounced the next Shepherd and Squire.

"Could you give us a moment to talk this out?" Rose asked. He and the woman nodded. Rose nodded for Sorey to move back so they could talk privately. Sorey followed Rose out of earshot of the two so they could talk.

"Honestly Sorey, this all sounds ridiculous and even if they are telling the truth, me and you are just some normal people, and there's a chance were not even the chosen ones, I don't think we should do this." Sorey knew Rose made good points, if he believed everyone that told him he was the next savior of the Zesteria he probably would have laughed it off but something felt different this time, and despite the good points Rose made, he knew something was off in his travels and this just confirms it. Sorey doesn't see himself as a hero but he never turns his back to people in need, after what he saw in the iris gem he can't let that happen once again, he will just have to take that chance.

"Rose I understand, and I'm not asking you to do it but, something feels different about what these two are telling me, this world has been slowly changing and not for the better, after what I've seen and putting two and two together, I don't think I can just ignore what's going on here. It might seem stupid of me but I can't take the chance of letting the world go to hell knowing I could have done something about it." Rose looked at Sorey surprised at his resolve; he was serious about this, willing to believe what they told them. Rose wouldn't deny it either it's just hard to ignore what they had just seen, even she could feel these people were serious about what they were saying which made this decision even harder.

"So even if this did send you to your death you would still do it?" Rose asked. Sorey nodded firmly, the serious look still on his face. Rose sighed and grabbed Sorey's ears pinching it.

"Owww!" Sorey yelled. She let go of his ear; he rubbed it looking at her wondering why she had done that.

"You idiot, you would really risk your life for this wouldn't you?"

"Yea I would, cant let the world go to rot right?" he chuckled. Rose smiled at Sorey's attitude, looks like her gut was right again about following Sorey. Who knows, this adventure just might be fun.

"Guess im stuck with you then, who knows what stupid things you will get yourself into." She smiled.

"Well im glad to know someone like you will have my back." Sorey smiled.

"Well it looks like you guys have come to an agreement." The man said.

"Yep, even though I still think this whole thing is ridiculous, I trust my gut and well, it's telling me to trust Sorey." She looked at Sorey who looked at her smiling, she nodded her head and proceeded to lightly punch him in the arm. "Besides, he just looks like he will get into trouble without someone watching him."

"Geez thanks for the vote of confidence."

"Quit whining you know it's true." She giggled.

"Well that's great; we believe that you two can do it." The man said.

"Believe no, we know you two will do it." The woman said also.

"So now what?" Rose asked. She wondered if they were going to do something magical or extravagant, I mean becoming the Shepherd should come with some perks right, she hoped they would give them some cool stuff like maybe new weapons, cause there's didn't do much against that hellion.

"Well now you guys take this." The man brought out two rings one blue the other pink, both had dragon carvings on the ring. Sorey grabbed the blue one and Rose grabbed the pink one. They both looked at it wondering what it would do.

"Well put them on." He said.

"What are they gonna do?" Sorey asked.

"Well put them on and you will find out." Sorey looked to Rose and nodded to her, she nodded back and they both put them on at the same time. The two waited for something to occur but nothing came at all.

"Uhh nothing's happening." Sorey said confused looking at the ring.

"What are these rings supposed to do?" Rose asked.

"Well this is good." The man said. The woman looked happy also confusing the two.

"Those rings test the resolve and purity of people, it detected no type of malice from you two, which is very rare." She explained.

"That's cool!" Sorey exclaimed.

"It is but what happens to the people who do though."

"Well then it burns your finger off." The man said.

"WHAT!" Sorey and Rose yelled. They both tried to immediately take the ring off after hearing that even though they passed. They were trying but the rings weren't coming off. The man looked like he was ready to burst into laughter, while the woman shaked her head at him disappointed. Rose and Sorey stopped surprised at the man holding in his laugh.

"Arthur I can't believe you, can't you stay serious for once in your life." She complained.

"Look I can't change that much." He laughed.

"So your name's Arthur." Sorey said.

"Shit-". The woman squeaked and covered her mouth, she's not fond of cursing and she had just revealed her partners name which she wasn't supposed to do.

"Don't worry Guiniverre its fine, we could at least tell them our names." Arthur said taking off his hood and mask revealing a man that looked to be in his mid 30's with blue eyes and light blond hair.

"Fine." Guiniverre took off her hood and mask revealing light tan skin, onyx colored eyes and her long flowing blonde hair that ended at her back.

"I knew you guys were hiding something! But there's more isn't there." Rose said.

"Well there is but for now we can't tell you, we weren't even supposed to tell you who we are or reveal our face so this is all we can tell you for now." Rose looked like she was about to ask for more information but Sorey stopped her by putting an hand in front of her and shaking his head. Rose sighed and decided to drop it.

"Well now that you guys have the rings off you go to Lady Lake." Arthur said waving them off.

"Wait what about the rings we cant take them off." Rose complained trying again.

"What Arthur didn't explain." She hissed at him causing him to look away chuckling. "Was that those rings enhance your physical capabilities allowing you to fight hellions easier, but you cannot use this strength against humans, the rest will be explained by the lady of the lake once you meet her."

"Huh well that's fine, rings pretty cool to me." Sorey smiled.

"Sorey Rose, thank you for taking this responsibility, I know this is a lot to take on at once but it is necessary that you too do this, we know you can." Guinevere said.

"Don't worry, we won't let you down." Sorey nodded affirmably.

"Yea you can count on it." Rose smiled giving them a thumbs up.

"Great now run along, the faster you get there the better." Arthur said waving his hand. Sorey was still kind of stunned by Arthur's playful attitude, he was so serious a second ago before but now he seemed like he was acting like himself. Guinevere on the other hand seemed like a sweet person, but from the way she handled Arthur she can get assertive when she wanted to. He chuckled at the thought.

"Woah wait hold I still need to know one more thing." Rose said.

"If it's about us we can't rev-".

"No its not, which one of us is the Shepherd?" that was actually a good question Sorey thought. It could be either Rose or him since they both found the place.

"Well that's why you will need to take the test now off you go." Arthur said yawning. Rose glared at him. He didn't look like he was taking it seriously anymore. She felt like hitting him, luckily Guinevere did that for her.

"Excuse Arthur." She said pulling his ear. "That's all the information we can give for now, to you too. I'm positive you will figure it out on your own."

"Thank you for the help. We won't let you down." Sorey said bowing.

"Yea same here." Rose said doing the same. They both nodded as they left the temple.

"You think we made the right choice Arthur." Guinevere said.

"Don't worry, something about those two tells me they will be different. They won't make the mistake I did, I know it Gwen." Arthur clenched his fist as he said this. Guinevere took his fist and held it in her hand calming him down. Arthur watched on as Sorey and Rose left hoping that they could stop this age of chaos.

LINE BREAK

After the events in the tower Rose and Sorey made it back to town and were now sitting on a bench discussing the recent events.

"Hard to believe everything that just happened right, it seems so surreal." Rose said.

"Yea I feel you." Sorey glanced at his ring still looking at it in amazement.

"Hey if it wasn't for the hellions I guess this would be a pretty cool adventure right." Sorey smiled at Rose's comment, she had a point, it would be awesome just traveling without the impending doom of chaos. That's when Sorey realized something.

"Rose what are you gonna tell your merchant guild?" Sorey didn't really have a problem stopping what he was doing since he was basically a drifter but Rose had a living that she had. She looked down for a moment; it looked like she was thinking. Rose lifted her head up smiling.

"Don't worry, they can manage without me for a bit, I'll just tell them that you're an important client." She said putting emphasis on the client.

"Important client?" Sorey wasn't sure what she meant by that but decided to leave it alone, Rose seemed like she knew what she was doing, she had that easy go type of attitude.

"Great, well when do you want to leave?" Sorey asked.

"Hold on, we don't even know where were supposed to go to find the lady of the lake-" Rose paused in her sentence. She face palmed her forehead which confused Sorey. How could she be so stupid, there's only one obvious answer.

"I can't believe I forgot there's a place in the hyland empire that has a place literally named Lady Lake, that's probably where the test is."

"But in such a very populated place, I wonder what it will be?" Sorey said.

"Who knows but now we got a destination, we can think of what the test will be on the way, I suggest you start packing up, were leaving first thing tomorrow morning." Sorey nodded and looked down glumly. Rose noticed this and wondered what was getting him down, she decided to ask him this.

"Sorey what's wrong?" She asked.

"Rose before we get to Hyland can we make a stop somewhere on the way?" Sorey asked.

"Sure where?" she asked.

"My home town Eleysia." Sorey finished.

* * *

A young man in blue robes,white pants, with light blue hair and eyes looked onward on the grassy planes of his home. He had been sitting here for some time just thinking, he didn't know why but he had a feeling his life was about to get interesting. He looked at a brown bird that flew down on a tree branch chirping happily. The young man couldn't help but smile at the bird, it reminded him of a old friend. The smile soon turned to a frown as he's remembered how long it's been since he's seen this said friend of his.

"Sorey where ever you are, hope you haven't changed too much."

 **Welp this chapter is finally done, again thank you for your patience and I hoped you enjoyed reading it, next chapter Rose is finally going to learn about Sorey and his childhood, and get to meet Mikleo and just maybe a certain princess knight, who knows, thanks for reading.**


	3. Chapter 3: Old and New friends

_**Tales of Two: Old and new friends**_

 **A/N:Hey guys sorry for such the long wait! I truly am, my computer broke down so that put a thorn in my plans and I have been taking a summer class for Calculus II also so I haven't had that much time to write, I finally was able to finish the chapter and I hope that you guys enjoy it, once again excuse the grammar and writing I will eventually upload an imporved version like I did my others once I get the chance. Also not gonna lie kind of rushed this one, I just needed to get another chapter out to you guys, please enjoy, ill see you at the end of the chapter.**

* * *

"So how much longer until we reach your hometown, I've never been on this path before." Rose asked. The two left early in the morning as they decided to not waste time. Sorey smirked as he knew the reason for why this path was unknown. There were not many people that knew about this path and the ones that did….well trying to get into Elyesia was not an easy task at all. Even after the path, there came the obstacle that keeps almost everybody from crossing into Eleysia.

"About 30 minutes, were almost there Rose." Rose pouted, it's one thing to walk for a long time and know where you're going, but it's another thing to do that and not know what to expect. They continued on for 30 min exactly, Rose had surprisingly been counting and still nothing had appeared.

"Sorey its been 30-."

"Were here." Sorey announced. They stepped into a clearing. Rose was stunned that it was just an old ruin; this didn't look like a town at all. She was kidding about calling the ruins his home, but was he being serious about that.

"Sorey is this some joke. I knew you were a ruin geek but its hard to believe your whole town lives in one." Sorey started to laugh at what Rose had just said. They were here but they definitely had to get past the ruins first before they made it over to Eleysia.

"Yea sorry I forgot to mention, were here but once we get past this ruin we will be in Eleysia." He chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. He had forgotten to tell her about that one part. It seemed Rose didn't take that too lightly as she had an annoyed look on her face. Sorey stopped talking as it looked like she was ready to hit him. Luckily she didn't as she merely hurmphed and continued past him muttering "Ruin geek". Sorey smiled and followed her into the ruins. As they entered Sorey couldn't help but reminiscence about the times spent in Eleysia. He was always trying to find adventure and historical items anywhere he could, he was never alone while he did this though, he always had his best friend by his side. Sorey frowned as he realized now he had to face everybody again after being away for so long. He only hoped they weren't too mad with him, especially that certain someone.

Sorey and Rose walked through the ruins looking around at the old cave. This was definitely a very old place; Rose didn't even need to be well versed in ruins to know that. She was actually quite curious to where Sorey grew up, especially since she has never heard of this place called Eleysia. She's been to a lot of places in her time traveling with her merchant guild, and not too many places eluded them but this place, never heard of it. She also thought maybe this place could explain why she's able to see hellions like Sorey did. He explained that he grew up with people able to see them, so maybe she can find some answers there. Putting her thoughts behind her, their walk through the cave was a quiet one, both just enjoying each other's company and looking around at the cave. It was after 20 more min of walking that Rose started to question if they were getting anywhere; she decided to ask Sorey since he best knew this place.

"Hey Sorey, it's been like 20 min are we there yet?" Rose asked.

"Don't worry Rose these Ruins have a lot of twists and turns so even though a straight path would be faster, were taking a lot of different routes to get to Eleysia, the ruins were made this way for a reason." Sorey explained. Rose sighed but decided that it sounded right; from what she deducted the reason why she never heard of this place is probably because these people never wanted to be found, just what kind of town did Sorey grow up in?

"We will be there before you know it." Sorey smiled back at Rose assuring her that they would be there in no time. Rose gave a weak smile back; this whole trip was still taking too long.

* * *

Sorey and Rose were now sitting near a monolith, one with a nervous look and the other with disappointment. It didn't take a genius to figure between the two which had which look. Rose blew a strand of hair out of her hair bored. They had walked an extra 30 min and guess what, still no way out of the maze. She had demanded they take a break, not that she was tired but rather it was the frustration of not reaching their destination in time. She knew something was up when he contemplated on which hallway to take.

"Sorey were lost aren't we." Rose had said that blankly which did not bode well for Sorey. He had really thought they would be out by now; he even assured Rose that they would get to Eleysia in no time.

"Well now that I think about it, it has been a while since I came back here. I might have forgotten a turn or two." he chuckled nervously hoping Rose wouldn't be too mad, well he was wrong.

"You dolt! Why didn't you say anything!" she yelled. Sorey winced at her outburst and put his hands up in defense.

"I'm sorry, I really thought I knew where I was going, Rose please it was a honest mistake." She was now giving him _'the look'_ ; well that's what Sorey called it whenever Rose got mad with him. She pulled his ear making him yelp.

"I would do worse but we don't have time for that right now, we need to get out of here." She let go of his ear and looked forward surveying the ruins.

"We should probably look around some more and hope we see something." She held her hand out looking at Sorey. He blinked at her hand wondering what she wanted.

"What? Is something wrong with your hand?" he asked.

"No you dolt, help a girl up. It's the least you could do after wasting our time." Sorey nodded chuckling. He stood up and then took Rose's hand helping her off the ground. The two walked into the opening to discuss how they were going to get out of this place.

"Ok so I feel like our best bet is to maybe follow the wind." Rose suggested.

"good idea but only problem is we'd have to get somewhat close to the entrance to feel that, this place is huge, so it'd be hard to gauge that from anywhere."

"We also have to make sure we don't walk right back where we started also."

"Oh boy this is gonna be a long day." Sorey nodded along agreeing with her.

"But for now we should pr-". Sorey stopped mid-sentence as he heard what sounded like crumbling. Rose looked at him wondering what was wrong, but she also heard the crumbling sound too, which is what probably got Sorey worried. The more they heard it the closer it started to get, funny it sounded like it was right above them. Sorey and Rose both realized that they had to move. Luckily Sorey moved quick and moved him and Rose out the way. Sorey shielded Rose as the ceiling crumbled. After a few seconds the crumbling stopped, luckily for Sorey and Rose they had not come to harm from the ceiling coming apart. Sorey let go of Rose and looked her over making sure she was ok.

"My hero." Rose said with much sarcasm. Sorey couldn't help but laugh. She wiped off some dust from his hair that came from the ceiling, it was the least she could do since he protected her once again.

"That's the 2nd time this has happened, it seems whenever where in ruins the whole place seems to fall apart. Sorey thanks for protecting me but let me return the favor next time ok."

"Sorry but I can't help myself, it's sort of a reflex thing. It'd be bad if anything happened to you Rose." Rose felt a bit flustered at Sorey's comment. She didn't know he cared like that. Then again she figured it's just the type of person he is, always putting others first.

"Fine then, next time rocks are falling over us I'll be first instead." Sorey laughed at Rose's joke but then stopped his chuckling as he heard what sounded like yelling. Rose picked up on his look and wondered if it was more rocks coming after them.

"Oh god what is it now." Rose complained. The yelling got louder and Rose heard it too, then out of nowhere water splashed down on the floor, along with a young man. The young man was short, taller than rose but not by that much, shorter than Sorey by probably 4 inches. He had used the water to land gracefully on the ground. He had silver hair and was wearing white pants and a blue shirt along with a blue cape; he also had a staff in his hand. Rose was flabbergasted at what just happened, he used water to break his fall. She couldn't believe she just saw that.

"What the hell, how did you do that!." She yelled. Rose thought she had seen everything after the whole hellion thing, boy was she ever wrong. She noticed Sorey hadn't said anything and looked to him wondering why he was quiet. Rose couldn't help but be taken back, Sorey didn't seem surprised at all, in fact he seemed too have taken a serious look. The man who had just fallen had noticed that upon his grand entrance he had met two people. He was a bit taken back by the girl; she could see him which was weird. He then looked to the man and his face paled immediately, he had a very strong resemblance to someone he has seen before.

' _He looks just like, it couldn't be'_

Though it didn't show on Sorey's face he couldn't believe himself that this was Mikleo, he hadn't seen him in 5 years, he hadn't really changed that much side from being a little taller, but judging from the look Mikleo gave him it looked like he was gauging him too.

"Who are you?" Mikleo asked pointing his staff at Sorey.

"C'mon Mikleo, did I change that much that you can't recognize me." Sorey grinned at him. There was no doubt about it. Mikleo knows that grin better than anyone else, it was really Sorey.

"Sorey you know him." Rose said stepping closer to Sorey.

"Yea he knows me alright, known me for a long time." Sorey picked up on the tone of anger in Mikleo's voice.

"Mikleo its been a long time." Sorey stepped up to his friend and put a hand on his shoulder. Sorey looked down at Mikleo; a sad look of regret on his face.

"Mik i-." Sorey never got to finish his sentence as Mikleo punched him putting him flat on his back.

"Sorey! Why you-." Rose got out her daggers ready to fight but Sorey put a hand up stopping her as he sat up. Sorey started to chuckle which confused Rose, why was he chuckling, he had just been glassed in the face. Rose kneeled down next to him putting her hands on his shoulders checking his face. She winced as she saw he got him good, he had hit him right in the eye, that's gonna bruise.

"Guess I deserved that huh". Rose quirked her eyebrow up confused.

"Yea you do, how could you just leave Sorey!" Mikleo yelled at him. Rose saw the anger on Mikleo face, but she could also see a hint of relief also.

"You were gone for 5 years! You left me, gramps, and the village without a word of goodbye, you could have at least told us, or me! I spent the last 5 years worrying when you would come back; sometimes I even thought that maybe you might have even died out there!"Sorey looked down at the ground sadly. He hadn't known his leaving would affect him this much. Now he had really felt bad.

"Mikleo I'm sorry but I had to leave, I couldn't stay cooped up in the village. I've always wanted to explore and that's what I've been doing, please understand. I don't regret leaving the village, but I won't lie that I felt awful for leaving without a word but if I did you knew what gramps would say." Sorey explained. Rose realized that whatever these two are going through, they needed to solve it themselves, wasn't her right to get in between them but they really did need to get out of this cave.

"Hey, I don't mean to get in between you two but, I think it would be best to leave this ruin first." Rose said after staying quiet for so long. Mikleo sighed and turned away, she had a point.

"Fine, we can talk about this later when we get out of here. Excuse me asking but who are you? Sorey's girlfriend?" Mikleo asked. Both Rose and Sorey went as red as a tomato, did they both really look like they were dating.

"No!" Rose yelled. Mikleo took notice of something on their hands, they both had rings. Mikleo didn't know that Sorey had got married along the way, maybe that's why he came back, to show his wife to him and the village?

"Sorry, didn't know you guys were already married." Rose and Sorey were surprised at Mikleo's bizarre comment, Rose more than Sorey though.

"No you doofus were not married either geez!" Rose yelled.

"But the rings on your fingers." Mikleo pointed out. "Isn't that something humans do."

"Look that can be explained later bu-. Rose stopped her speech as she just realized he pointed them out by humans. That's odd why would another human say that, unless he wasn't human himself.

"Wait a minute what do you mean by that?" Rose asked. Sorey sighed, he was going to tell her before they entered Eleysia but I guess now the jig is up.

"Huh, isn't it human tradition to marry the one you love." Mikleo said confused. He could have sworn his gramps told him that this was something humans regularly did.

"No I mean the way you said it, like you weren't human yourself." Rose pointed out. Mikleo mouthed an oh, she doesn't know he's a seraphin. He shaked his head and looked at Sorey.

"You didn't tell her did you?" Rose quirked her eyebrow and then glared at Sorey giving him ' _the look_ '. She grabbed his ear making Sorey yelp in pain. Mikleo couldn't help but winced, that had to hurt, just where did Sorey find this girl?

"So you were holding something back again huh." Rose seethed.

"O wow, Rose i-ouch, was gonna tell you once we-, ow! Got out!" Sorey yelped as he was trying to explain while she was pulling his ear.

"Oh just like how you were gonna tell me you forgot how to get to Eleysia huh!" She grabbed both of his ears this time making his suffering even worse. Mikleo put his hand on his chin as he was wondering how this girl was able to see Seraphin, this was weird. Not too many humans can see Seraphin, he would have to inform gramps about this, or better yet Sorey will, his woman his responsibility.

"Well you can tell me later after we get out if this cave, and no more holding things back, got it Sorey" she warned. He nodded his head affirm still rubbing his ears as he got up. This was a reminder to not lie anymore, he's not the best at it.

"So Mikleo could you guide us out please, this one obviously doesn't know the way out." She glanced at Sorey as he chuckled nervously at Rose's comment. Mikleo glanced back at Sorey, the idiot really has not changed one bit. He couldn't help but feel a bit relieved that he hadn't changed a lot. Sorey caught him looking and sent him a half smile. Mikleo looked back upfront and started to walk guiding the two through the cave. Sorey frowned, he knew things were shaking and he really wanted to talk to Mikleo about it but right now was not the time for it, after there out of this cave then they could talk, he definitely believes that something like this could not break up their friendship.

"Can't stay mad at me forever Mikleo." Sorey muttered under his breath as he followed his friends through the old ruin.

* * *

Sorey, Mikleo, and Rose have been walking in the ruins for the past 10 min in silence; sadly it was far from a comfortable silence. The tension between Sorey and Mikleo could literally be felt through the air and Rose couldn't stand it. These two would definitely have to work things out once we got out of here, she looked back at Sorey, he didn't show it since his face was blank, probably in thought. She looked back up at Mikleo but same thing with him. She shaked her head, she really hoped they could patch things up, she hasn't known Sorey for long but she can tell it's not in his personality to be moping like this.

"Hey were almost there, it's just across that pla-". Mikleo announced that they were close to the exit but stopped talking. Mikleo narrowed his eyes; he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Rose and Sorey looked at each other what made him stop his speech. They both followed up to Mikleo and saw his gaze was on the platform down there. Sorey and rose looked and were surprised to find a figure in the distance, but not just any figure it was a human girl. She was laying on the ground most likely unconscious.

"Wow cant believe someone else is down here." Sorey stated. Rose nodded her head in agreement, if Sorey said this place is never used by anyone else how had she gotten here.

"How in the world did she end up here, most humans shouldn't have found this place and even if they did, they couldn't have got past the bridge." Mikleo said.

"Im not sure, but we better get to her, she needs help." Sorey said.

"No way!" Mikleo yelled back.

"What why not?" Sorey wondered.

"Look Sorey if we help, were are you planning on take her to huh?" Mikleo asked. Sorey then realized what he was getting at.

"So what, we just can't leave her there, she needs help we have to take her to Eleysia!" Rose looked back and forth between the two, seemed like things were getting pretty heated.

"No way! Were just gonna have to leave her there, we already have on human with us and I guess she's an exception since she's your wife."

"Were not married!" Rose and Sorey shouted at the same time.

"Either way, Mikleo when did you get so bitter, did my going away hurt you that much that you won't help someone in need!".

"Bitter, ill show you bitter!" Mikleo got out his staff and Sorey got out his sword. Rose sighed, why did boys seem to solve everything through fighting she had to intervene, before the two could clash, she got in-between them stopping them both.

"Would you two quit it! Geez this is not time to have a petty squabble." Mikleo lowered his staff as he realized she was right, same thing with Sorey. Rose was surprised by Sorey, he's usually such a gentle person.

"Look, Mikleo, it's wrong to leave somebody like that there stranded, human or seraphin. It's just not right, and Sorey you shouldn't have made such a comment like that, we don't know the girl at all, she even has a weapon. He's just looking out for the tribe, there's a reason humans don't step foot here."

"As far as what to do with the girl, we will help her, if what you said is true about humans then she won't even see the villagers. We will take her there and Sorey will ask your village elder if its alright, if it is then we shall help here as quickly as possible so she can be on her way ok, is that clear!". The two men couldn't help but nod their heads in agreement; honestly the two were afraid what would happen if they didn't agree.

" _Sorey sure knows how to pick em_ " Mikleo thought.

"Fine let's just go."Sorey nodded glumly and followed suit with Rose beside him. Honestly Sorey wasn't sure what made him say those words, he knew him leaving was a sensitive spot but he was just so frustrated over his current relationship with Mikleo and he couldn't believe he would deny that girl help so quickly like that. Rose glanced at Sorey, she could feel how trouble he was, same with Mikleo. Rose nudged him and gave him a smile, she was basically saying ' _don't worry, everything will work itself out_ '. Rose's smile seemed to help Sorey a bit as he saw she was just trying to help his mood, he nodded a thanks to her. The group soon came across where they needed to go only to come across an invisible bridge.

"Hmmm weird, I never usually take this way to get to Elysia but I should have expected this since I came." Mikleo put his hand on his chin in what Rose also dubbed his ' _thinking position'_. Rose couldn't help but chuckle on the inside, even she had her own ' _thinking position_ '.

"Think we could jump it." Sorey joked.

"Funny, why don't you try first then daredevil." Rose joked pushing him along

"Hey I was joking besides, wonder how long the drop is." Sorey picked up a rock and tossed it in. he waited for the rock to drop but what happened instead was the rock was floating in midair.

"Of course" Mikleo mumbled to himself.

"I don't believe, so that's how they kept humans out." Sorey said hitting his fist to his palm.

"If any human got this far to Elysia they defenitly would have gave up and left, the people who built this place were very thorough." Mikleo commented.

"If I'm correct from what I've been seeing this ruins have to be at least between 500-300 years old." Sorey deduced.

"Correct the ruins I had been looking at before had etchings that told of the coming of the previous shephered, so as you guessed." Mikleo said. He couldn't help but smile a bit; ruins always did get him excited, even in this certain predicament.

" _geez another ruin geek, now I understand why there friends…well I hope they become friends again_ ". Rose thought.

"Well if were gonna cross it'd be better if you use your powers to show the bridge, wouldn't want to fall off." Sorey said.

"How perceptive of you." Mikleo said before freezing the bridge, he got on first and walked across. Sorey was about to walk too but saw Rose was still looking at it skeptically.

"C'mon Rose, I won't let you fall." Sorey said bringing out his hand.

"Sorry but still can't believe there's an invisible bridge." She didn't need to grab his hand but better safe than sorry, and the bridge was icy so what if she slipped. She grabbed Sorey's hand as he led her across the bridge.

"And were across, see wasn't so hard." Sorey laughed.

"Oh shut it, now cmon lets help the girl." They all moved towards the girl, now that they saw here more closely they saw her garb consisted of armor and a pink uniform, she also had blonde hair. It seemed like she was a knight since her weapon was a lance. Rose also took note that this was the uniform of Hyland but she doesn't remember them taking on women soldiers, suspicious.

"Huh would you look at that, it looks like she's a Knight." Sorey went up to her and picked up the lance. As he did that the girl started to wake up she opened her eyes, Sorey saw she had blue eyes. She held her head with her hands as it looked like she was trying to remember something.

"Ugh how did I get here?" She looked up and saw that Sorey and Rose were looking at her, she couldn't see Mikleo though since she was human. She panicked and backed up trying to grab her lance.

"Looking for this" Sorey said handing her the lance. She grabbed it and held her lance close to her for protection.

"Sorry about Sorey, his black eye is probably scaring you right, don't worry he's a big softie." Rose joked giggling.

"Ha ha funny." Rose held a hand to the girl and helped her up.

"Thank-you" she said. Mikleo walked up to the girl and examined her up close.

"Boo!" he yelled in front of her surprising Rose.

"Yep definitely human." He sighed. Bringing her to Eleysia was gonna be a problem.

"So my name is Sorey whats yours." Sorey said.

"Um sorry but I can't give out my name." Alisha said. Rose narrowed her eyes at the girl, that's odd she's hiding something. That's not a very good way to start off introductions and it seemed Mikleo thought the same thing.

"Well if she's not willing to give us her names, then I see no reason to help her, she looks fine anyway." Mikleo commented.

"Well im pretty sure she doesn't know how to get out of here." Sorey said looking back at Mikleo. The girl's eyebrows rose as she was confused as to why Sorey was talking to the air.

"Who are you talking too?" She asked.

"Don't mind him, he's just mumbling to himself right Sorey." Rose said hoping she bought it.

"Oh yea of course."

"Anyway its fine I guess, it seems like you need some help, my hometown is nearby here, I can take you there." Rose and Mikleo looked at him quizzily. Rose at first wouldn't have minded helping her but she was hiding something, she didn't get a bad vibe from her but there was a certain reason she wasn't revealing her name to them.

"Sorey wh-."

"I'll deal with the consequences once we get there but for now she's coming to Eleysia." Sorey said firmly. Mikleo sighed and shaked his head as he looked away, he was gonna let Sorey deal with gramps on this one, even if she tried anything him and Sorey could take her down, she was just one human girl.

"Wow thankyou, I don't know too many people who would offer something like that to a complete stranger." She said.

"Well I guess im not like other people." He chuckled.

"Yep this doofus is definite not like others." Rose said putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Oh funny." Alisha couldn't help but giggle but she also caught a look at the rings on their fingers, she was surprised; these two were so young but yet they were married and she thought their rings were gorgeous.

"Oh wow I didn't know you guys were married, but you're so young." Alisha said.

"Look were not married ok, the rings are a long story can we just get out of the cave for now." Rose said red in the face. Sorey couldn't help but laugh, he was embarrassed about it too but if that was the kind of vibe him and Rose gave off then there was nothing they could do about it.

"Don't worry, just a misunderstanding." Sorey put a hand on her shoulder calming her down.

"Yea but if this misunderstanding keeps on happening then it's gonna be a problem." Rose sighed. Rose could not believe people actually thought that of them, these rings have to go, but sadly they cant take it off or else they will be mince meat once a strong hellion catches them.

"Cmon lets just go." She said pulling Sorey along. Though she stopped in her tracks as she saw the girl was still standing there looking around.

"Is something wrong?" Rose asked.

"Oh sorry its just that, it feels like somebody is watching me, must be my imagination though." She smiled. Rose couldn't help but chuckle a bit seeing Mikleo raise his eyebrow. Mikleo shook his head and lead the way out the ruin. Once they were out Rose and Alisha were stunned by the lush grassland they were seeing. Rose has seen a lot but this place just felt so peaceful.

"Wow I cant believe this place, ive heard that the Seraphim used to live here."

"Oh you believe in the Seraphim." Sorey said. It'd be nice if more people believed in them rather than treat it as a fairy tale.

"Though I have no evidence that they exist, I truly believe that the Seraphin are with us." Sorey and Mikleo couldn't help but smile, the way she spoke with such sincerity, she believed in Seraphim.

"I really wish there was some proof they existed, the celestial records can only tell you so much."

"Oh you read the celestial records too."

"Yea, it may be a childrens book but it was something very special to me, I loved the storys they offered."

"Sorey cmon, we need to get moving." Mikleo called out as he started walking ahead.

"Right we should be going." He motioned for Alisha to follow them. On the way their Sorey was explaining to Rose and Alisha about the place with Mikleo adding his thoughts despite Alisha not being able to hear. After about 5 min of small talk they had finally reached the gates of Eleysia. Sorey looked upon Eleysia longingly, he could not believe that he was back after all these years. He was eyeing all the seraphin that were going about their lives in the village, a lot of them he remembered others he's never seen before. But it was gonna be hard to see them again after so long. Hopefully their first reaction won't be to punch him in the face but whatever the interaction, he's glad he actually decided to comeback. He was brought out of his thoughts when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He saw it was Rose and she was giving him a comforting smile.

"You gonna stand there all day or you actually gonna enter. Don't worry Sorey, itll be fine, and cmon Mikleo cant stay mad at you forever, you guys got too much in common when it comes to being a ruin geek". Sorey chuckled and put his hand on hers as a show of thanks. He then looked to the front and saw that they attracted the attention of most of the villagers, it seems they noticed him as they had surprised and shocked faces, either from his return or the two new faces with him.

"Well good luck explaining this to gramps." Mikleo said as he took into the village.

"Mikleo is that, Sorey!?" one of the villagers asked.

"Yea that's him." Mikleo sighed.

"I don't believe it Sorey, and hes all grown up!" they soon then started to form a crowd around Sorey welcoming him back to the village. Rose couldn't help but look on with a smile as she saw Sorey talking to the villagers with that same dumb goofy smile on his face; she liked it better when Sorey wasn't moping around.

"Uhm, excuse me, but is your friend ok?" The girl asked Rose. Rose had completely forgot about their non-seeing Seraphin girl.

"Oh Don't worry about Sorey, he's just fine." She laughed.

"Seems like he's talking to someone." The girl said skeptically.

"Yea he's weird like that." Rose laughed again. Sorey broke off from the villagers to talk to Rose and the girl.

"Hey Rose come over here real quick." Sorey called out. Rose walked up to Sorey and was surprised when he leaned in close to her.

"I explained the situations to the villagers about you and the girl, for now don't talk to them, only after the girl rests since she is looking tired." Sorey explained. Rose nodded and walked back with Sorey to the girl.

"So you must be tired right, you can come rest in my house." Sorey offered.

"Yea I am feeling quite tired, thankyou very much Sorey." Sorey led Rose and the girl to his house; well he hoped it was still his house. Rose couldn't help but glance at the passing Seraphin, she still couldn't believe that they were actually real, this was all so mind boggling. She stopped in her thoughts when she saw they were at Sorey's place. Sorey opened the door to his house as they entered in. Sorey was quite surprised, the house was actually quite clean; it's as if he never left, all his stuff was still here.

"Nice place Sorey." Rose commented. It wasn't that bad at all.

"Thanks, Alisha you can take the bed over there."Sorey pointed out.

"Thankyou Sorey but where will you sleep."

"Don't worry ill take the floor but we have to take care of something first." Sorey and Rose stepped out the house leaving Alisha.

"Alright Rose, now I can introduce you to-"

"To who Sorey." Sorey turned in panic, there was only one person that had that voice, it was none other than.

"Gramps!" Sorey yelled surprised. He was hoping to come to him first, but with all the commotion he probably heard.

"Sorey, you and your companion with me now!". Rose couldn't help but frown a bit, Sorey's grandfather did not seem happy with him at all, and Sorey wasn't looking particularly forward to talking to him.

"Sorey, cmon don't want to keep your grandfather waiting." Rose said putting a comforting hand on his shoulder, it seemed like she was doing that a lot today.

"Right, just hopes he understands."

"Im sure he will, I don't really know him but he seems like the tough love type am I right." She smiled. Sorey chuckled as she was spot on about that.

"Well you're not wrong but just hope it's not too much tough love." Sorey grimaced before following his grandfather with Rose right behind with what hoped to be an ok conversation but he knew deep down he was in for hell.

* * *

"Hmmmm, the main course should be somewhere around here." A tall man with pale white skin and long blonde hair skulked around the ruins near Eleysia. He was sniffing the air searching for something. His face grew in excitement as he picked up on a scent, he moved quickly through the ruins and pass the invisible bridge to a small drop of blood on the platform. He sniffed it and marveled in the smell.

"Ive found my main course!" he sniffed the air one more time. He licked his lips in delight.

"That doesn't mean I cant have a appetizer before though! HAHAHAHAH!"

* * *

 **A/N: Well you proably know who that was lol but hope you guys liked it and excuse my writing of Alisha, I wanted to expand on her knowledge she had about the seraphin and ruins but I just wanted to finish the chapter. Also your proably wondering why I had Sorey and Mikleo fought like that, well when I had the idea that Sorey left to go journey the world I kind of wanted to take a bit of that sheltered shepherd his is known for away but still keep him the same, and I felt that leaving your best friend for that long without saying a word was going to cause some problems when they meet up again, but we will see how their relationship I next chapter. Also the Tales of Zesteria the X looks great, 1** **st** **episode 0/10 too much Alisha…jk lol glad she's getting a bigger role this time around with the anime but still can't wait for Rose to make her permanent mark in the show, 2** **nd** **episode was great, slow but a good kind of slow, and I also wonder how the next game's main character is going to fit into the story, please leave your thoughts about the show if you can in your reviews, would love to hear others thought**


	4. Chapter 4: Trouble in Eleysia Pt 1

**Here it is the long awaited update you all been waiting for. Sorry for it taking so long, life ya know but here it is. I actually made the Eleysia part of the story into two parts cause I realized I made this one really long. 19 damn pages in word holy fuck! So ill try and get part two done soon enough, but I also did want to know if you guys wanted mini chapters. They would basically be short stories that could be about anything for Sorey and Rose. It doesn't have to be connected at all to the story, it could be set in the star wars universe if it wanted to be, and that's where you guys come in, at the end of the reviews you would suggest what you want me to write about and I would try to the best of my ability to capture your vision, if I don't truly capture it I am sorry but at least it got out there. I will try to write everybody's idea but if you don't get picked don't feel bad, I'll try and get it in there, the chapter will be a length of 300-550 words, just something quick so it can hold you over until the next chapter and it won't really get in the way of my next chapter. Thought depending if you guys do want this I already have an idea I want to use for the mini chapter so it would be the next one but the one after that mini chapter will be used. Please enjoy the chap and excuse any mistakes I made in the story.**

 **Chapter 4: Trouble in Eleysia pt.1**

"You fool!" Sorey flinched at his Grandpa's voice while he was kowtowing. A big sorry and bow was the first thing he did before his grandpa even started talking. Rose was a little conflicted on what to do on this situation. The only thing she could do is bow to the head of the village and watch quietly. Though her bowing was not as much as Sorey's, he was all the way one the ground with his head down, while she took to placing her hands in her laps and bowing her head. She wasn't feeling nervous per say but the village chief did have this scrutinizing glare that made you feel like you did something bad even though you haven't.

"You were gone for 5 years Sorey, disobeyed my orders and up and left without a goodbye. I didn't know whether you were alive, dead or worse." He said the last part sternly. Rose raised here eyebrows, what could be worse then death? Unless he was talking about being turned nto a hellion, that would be worse than death.

"But Grandpa you don't understand i-."

"Silence!" he yelled cutting off Sorey.

"All those years you were gone, I thought the worst of you!" He sighed and took a whiff from his pipe. "The human world is a dangerous place, you had lived in Eleysia your whole life going into this uncharted territory. Sorey the world can change a person if your not careful, I was worried about the type of man you may have become." He took another whiff from his pipe sighing before sitting down in front of the two.

"But my heart thought the best of you also, it always told me that you would come back, and come back you did." He smiled ending his sentence. "Lift your head up boy" Sorey lifted his head and looked at his grandpa surprised by his smiling face; he could have sworn he was furious 5 seconds ago. Rose wasn't surprised, she knew he couldn't stay mad for too long. If he never loved Sorey then this conversation would never be happening.

"Despite being gone for long looks like the human world hasn't changed you much, though I wish it would fix how rash you are." His grandpa jested. "Back when you left, I knew that you were going to leave us one day, your human you don't belong with Seraphim. So it shouldn't have been much of a surprise either". Seraphin and humans just weren't meant to co-exist, Sorey was the exception but the village chief knew of the mistakes of the past, it was just not meant to be.

"That's wrong!" Sorey yelled back suprsing the other two occupants in the room.

"Gramps I grateful for all you did for me, and I love you and everyone in this village, so don't think for a second that I don't belong with you!"

"Humans and Seraphim will one day be able to co exist with each other, I wanna see that happen. The reason I left was because…well you know me I can't sit still. I was tired of reading from the celestial record, I wanted to go and explore the world and that I did, so don't even think for a second I left because I didn't belong with you guys. You're my family, human, seraphim or whatever else no one can replace you guys." The village elder smiled greatly at Sorey, the pride that welled up in his heart. The village chief walked up to Sorey and placed his hand on his shoulder. Seraphin and humans aren't meant to co-exist, but Sorey was the beacon of hope that showed it was a possibility. He may not believe it but he believes in Sorey and that is just enough for him.

"Tha-Ouch!" Sorey never got to finish as his granpa hit him on the head with his pipe.

"Those were heartfelt words Sorey, but don't ever yell at your elders, especially when that elder is the chief!" Sorey rubbed his head pouting a bit. He could have just said that, didn't have to hit him. Rose couldn't help but giggle a bit at Sorey's misfortune. She is glad he was able to talk and patch things up with his grandpa.

"And were still not done anyway, now leads the other problem." He looked towards Rose stopping her giggling. He looked at her carefully judging the girl before her, the village chief knew she was definitely human, but that didn't explain how she could see Seraphim. Sorey grew up with them so it only made sense, but her now that was a mystery. As he assed her he detected something else about her, it seems that she has very faint traces of the wind element around here, he wondered why that is.

"I think introductions are in order, I am the village chief of this village and also Sorey's grandfather. How are you my dear?" he introduced himself.

"im doing fine, my name is Rose Valentine sir." She introduced back

"So you can see Seraphim huh girl." He stated

"Yes sir." Rose nodded.

"And how is that possible?" he asked.

"Well actually I was hoping you would tell me sir, im not too sure myself." The chief looked down at his feet thinking for a bit, he didn't really have a explanation for this, his only guess was that maybe she just had a natural affinity for it, it wasn't uncommon back in the day but to speak of it now, it was quite odd.

"So you had no contact with Seraphim throughout your life?" He asked.

"No Sir, at least I don't think so, at times I would think I saw something or sometimes feel someone watching me but I just put it down as paranoia." Rose explained. The chief nodded at her statement and turned around as he emptied his pipe. From what he's heard he can only deduct that the girl may have been in the presence of Seraphim her whole life but was gifted with a natural affinity for seeing them, the only thing he couldn't explain was the faint wind element on her, that piece of information he would keep to himself.

"Im still not quite sure but my only guess is that you have had a heavy presence with Seraphim your whole life without you knowing, maybe not like Sorey, but it seems you have a natural affinity for it so it came easier to you than it would others." The chief explained.

"So I was just born this way then." The chief nodded affirming that.

"Well at least I have a explanation, still doesn't help the fact that ghosts have been watching me the entire time." She shivered. Sorey laughed at that, looks like someone had a fear of ghosts.

"Seraphim aren't ghosts."

"Don't care, anything that I cant see that watches me is creepy in my book."

"Ah I forgot the issue at hand." The chief said.

"Sorey you fool!" he shouted suprsing the two young adults, weren't they just laughing a few seconds ago.

"Why would you go and bring a human here!". Rose frowned, she guessed that in this secluded village seemed like the no human rule was a serious matter. Looks like Sorey was going to get in trouble for it she knew that much, but she still felt bad for it.

"Gramps I'm sorry i-".

"Im very sorry chief, I know my presence here isn't welcomed by Seraphim b-"

"Oh no dear I didn't mean you, I meant the other human you brought along." Oh Rose had forgot about the girl that came with them, but still two humans isn't that even worse?

"Now yes bringing two humans is even worse but I guess you would be the exception, considering your bonding." The chief stated take a puff form his pipe.

"Bonding?" Sorey asked, what did he mean by that. Rose was thinking the same thing.

"Its not everyday I get to meet my granddaughter in law as humans would put it, im not even sure how Sorey captured a lovely girl such as yourself." The chief chuckled. Now Rose understood what he was getting at. She was blushing so hard looking like a tomato while Sorey was laughing a bit from his granpa's statement. He knew it was official, people really do think there newlyweds.

"No sir were not-" Rose tried to explain but the chief already started to talk.

"Your bonding with Sorey and you being able to see us practically makes you once of us, so its fine but Sorey that human girl, what were you thinking."

"Gramps she was alone in the ruins near here, im not sure how she got there but she needed help. She wouldn't have survived out there! Please you have to let her stay!" The chief couldn't help but sigh, he was glad to see that Sorey's big heart hasn't changed. His helpful nature was one of his best qualities but it can also be his downfall if he's not careful.

"Im glad to see your helpful nature hasn't wavered but you cant just be that trusting, people can take advantage of that." Sorey knew what the chief was telling him was right but he couldn't just ignore he had to do something.

"I understand Gramps but can you at least let her stay for one more day, that will be enough time for her to recover, and I can help her prepare for her journey, please gramps." Sorey said bowing once more. The chief sighed as he looked down contemplating this.

"Fine then, just one more day."

"Wow thanks gramps!" Sorey said joyful. This was good, this will give him time to prepare food and supplies for her journey. Sorey got up ready to head out but was pulled back down by Rose.

"What-"

"your not gonna offer to help a lady up." She said hautily. Sorey sighed as he grabbed her hand and pulled her up. The chief chuckled at the two. She definitely had him wrapped around her finger.

"Don't worry gramps ill make sure she gets out safe."

"It was nice to meet you chief" Rose said bowing.

"You too my dear." The chief took a whiff from his pipe before sitting down continuing with his meditation. As they left Rose couldn't help but forget something.

"Look it's Sorey and his wife." One of the villagers said.

"Oh crap I never corrrected the chief, were not married." She complained. She couldn't help but sigh at the situation.

"You know what I don't care anymore." Rose said in defeat.

"Cmon it cant be that bad being married to me right." He said putting an arm around her shoulder. She scoffed as they walked to the oncoming crowd. They crowd looked like they had a lot of questions to ask, both Sorey and Rose knew this was going to be a long day.

* * *

"Well that was an intresting encounter." Rose said tired from the day of meeting Sorey's village. The constant questions about their relationship just would not stop, but it was nice to meet the seraphim, they really arent that different from your regular human, aside form the extended lifespan and ect but pretty much the same through and through. She really did wonder what had happened that had stopped humans from being able able to see them. From what Sorey had told her the ruins that they had come through used to be the capital of serphamin where humans and them lived in peace, shame its not like that now.

"Yea but it seemed liked they really liked you." Sorey said. He sat on his steps with Rose sitting right next to him. She couldn't help letting her head fall on his shoulder, she was just so beat.

"I think a couple of the women wanted to make a dress for me." She smiled

"Really that's nice of them; I'd love to see you in one of the dresses, I think it would look really good on you." Rose blushed a bit and smiled at Sorey's thoughtful comment.

"Thanks" she murmured. She looked at the night sky and was taken back from the beauty of it.

"It's funny, every time I look at the stars I can't help but be amazed each time, it never gets old." Rose said.

"Yea it never does, that's why we need to make sure moments like these can last." The time spent in the peaceful village of Eleysia had made Rose forget about their objective. She noticed that Sorey had clenched his fist. She grabbed his fist making him look over at her.

"Hey don't worry about it, we got this. You're with me." Sorey chuckled at Rose's encouraging word as he relaxed his hand and grabbed hers.

"But Sorey why didn't you tell the chief about what were about to do, don't you think that was something important to tell him?" Rose asked.

"Yea I was going to but thought against it, if he knew the journey I was going on he would be against it. I don't want him to worry more than he has too." That is true, Rose could see how much the chief worried for Sorey and on top of that he had to take care of a whole village, Sorey was just looking out for his grandpa, she just hoped he wouldn't come to regret telling him before its too late.

"Well you do have a point about that, funny thing even my merchant crew was little reluctant about me going with you but they know I can take care of myself."

'Still kind of feel bad about taking you away from them."

"Sorey I already told you, I wouldn't have gone on this journey if I didn't believe we could make a difference and besides, I've only known you for a few days but I already fully trust you and my gut is never wrong."

"Same with you, I'm glad you decided to try and con me."

"What con?" Rose questioned. Sorey started to laugh at his little joke. Rose didn't find that funny as she playfully shoved him to the grass. She chuckled as she looked at his fallen form.

"I wasn't trying to con you, if anything thing you were trying to con me with that ridiculous price!"

"Hey I had to try right?" Sorey was ready to sit back on the stairs and continue their playful banter but he caught a blue figure in the corner of his eye. He saw Mikleo walking off somewhere. Rose caught sight of Mikleo too and noticed how Sorey was looking at his retreating form. They still haven't talked anything over.

"Rose I-"

"I know you need to talk to him right?" Sorey nodded confirming her answer. Rose got up and walked to Sorey putting her hands on his shoulder.

"Promise me you won't end up with another black eye this time ok." She joked but still with a hint of worry.

"I'll try and Rose thanks for stopping me and Mikleo form fighting at the ruins, if you hadn't been there then who knows what might have happened"

"Well that's what I'm here for right, to keep you out of trouble and have your back." She then yawned signaling her fatigue.

"There should be some blankets I laid down for you in there, hopefully it's comfy enough." Sorey told her.

"Thanks Sorey, good luck." She waved him off as she entered his house to go to sleep. Sorey looked at Mikleo's retreating form and followed hoping to finally rekindle their friendship.

* * *

Mikleo stopped upon the grassy plains he set out for looking upon the clouds the land that was beyond Eleysia; it was truly a beautiful sight to behold, Mikleo always wondered what it was like out there. Honestly he envied Sorey for leaving the village, he must have explored lots of ruins; but Mikleo had a duty to the village and gramps. He always figured he'd leave, humans didn't have a place with Seraphim. Mikleo suddenly heard rustling behind him, he knew who it was instantly.

"What do you want Sorey?"

"I just want to talk."

"I think we did enough talking back in the cave." Mikleo spat.

"Know we didn't and you know it, will you at least let me explain." Sorey pleaded. He didn't understand why Mikleo was being so stubborn about this.

"You explained enough when you left!" Mikleo turned around facing Sorey.

"You left without of word, you didn't even tell me. Your best friend!" Mikleo yelled.

"And I understand, but you know me. I'm stubborn and strong headed, I wanted to leave because I wanted to explore the lands beyond here. I've seen so many things. If I had told you guys you would be against it, especially gramps. I was afraid and decided the best option was to just leave without you guys knowing." Sorey looked down glumly. He was afraid of even coming back to the village, but he knew it was something he had to do given the circumstances. Looking back on it now, he wished he had at least told Mikleo.

"Mikleo I told you I had no regrets about leaving back in the cave, but not telling you that hurt. I just wanted to let you know that". Mikleo looked down at the ground contemplating what Sorey had told him. Mikleo knew everything he was saying was true. Mikleo had realized something during Sorey's talk. He knew why he was truly angry. He knew this for a while but chose to ignore it. He didn't want to admit Sorey leaving him impacted him more than he thought, and now that he looked back on it, he shouldn't have stayed mad at him like this. Their good friends, 5 years may be a long time, but their friendship has lasted longer and it will. Mikleo sighed and looked back at Sorey.

"I forgive you." Sorey couldn't believe what he had just heard; did Mikleo say he forgave him?

"Wait you mean it!?" Sorey asked excitedly.

"Yes you fool, why-"Mikleo stopped talking as he saw Sorey rush over arms wide open, he was trying to give him a hug. Mikleo put his staff between Sorey and him stopping his advance.

"Hey I said I forgive you, doesn't mean I like getting hugged."

"Fair enough." He chuckled he put his fist out waiting for Mikleo to return the gesture. Mikleo grinned a bit and bumped his fist. Sorey was delighted; he had his best friend back. His thoughts immediately went back to what Rose had said about him and Mikleo's relationship. She was right after all; he really has to make it up to her when he can, especially because of the whole ordeal of getting here.

"One more thing though." Mikleo said grabbing Sorey's attention.

"You're not staying long are you. You came back here for a reason but why?" Mikleo asked. He saw Sorey give him a nervous look, looks like he didn't want to talk. He was never a good at lying so no way he was getting out of this.

"And don't lie, you suck at it".

"I'm sorry I can't tell y-".

"No don't give me that, after that whole speech your still going to keep secrets, no way Sorey!" Sorey scratched his head as he looked down at the ground. Mikleo was not one to be easily fooled and he doesn't think he can avoid this but then again, he can't just going around telling everyone what he's doing. If he does tell Mikleo he'd probably be against it.

"Fine then I see you don't want to tell, then I propose a deal." Sorey looked up at Mikleo wondering what he was getting at. A deal for what? "It's been a while since we've sparred ya know, hopefully you haven't gotten rusty". Mikleo took out his staff and gave it a few twirls before getting in stance. Sorey smiled remembering how they use to spar all the time back when they were kids. He took out his staff and gave some twirls too before getting in his stance.

"So I'm assuming if I win I don't have to tell you anything, but if you win."

"You spill your guts, about everything". Sorey nodded along Mikleo.

"I do warn you though, I'll look to finish this quick. Rose doesn't want me getting another black eye." Sorey joked, sort of; hopefully she wouldn't be too mad, well he hopes.

"Don't worry ill avoid the face this time, don't see why she's so worried though, it's not like me messing up your face will make you look any uglier then you are now. In fact it might be an improvement." Mikleo and the insults, that's something that will never change with him Sorey chuckled.

"Well if you're done talking here I come." Sorey moved quick, quicker than Mikleo thought a human being could move. He blocked Sorey's advance, his staff bounced back up from the recoil with his hands still on it. Another thing he noticed was his strength, when did he get so strong? Mikleo quickly got his act together and jumped back and side swiped at Sorey who blocked that attack. Mikleo pushed close and twirled his staff hitting his other side which Sorey blocked. Now it was his turn to be surprised. It's been a while since he fought Mikleo, he had definitely improved also. Mikleo swiped the other end of the staff upward nearly hitting Sorey in the face had he not leaned back. He stepped back from Mikleo but Mikleo did not give up on his advance, as he rushed Sorey with a fury of attacks.

"Hey!* _woosh_ *I said not* _woosh_ * not the!* _woosh*_ face!* _clank_ *" Sorey clashed weapons with Mikleo as they were both now at a standstill.

"Never promised that." Mikleo kicked Sorey's legs sending him down to the ground luckily Sorey reacted quick and kicked his staff he jumped back up and hit Mikleo. Luckily Mikleo guarded but the force behind Sorey's strike still sent him back. They went back and forth clash after clash, dodge after dodge both even in skill. They both had improved in 5 years and it was showing. Sorey panted from where he stood guard still up, same with Mikleo. This had to end soon or else this fight would go on longer.

"Alright I think it's time we end this!" Mikleo shouted.

"Same here!." Both ran at each other and clashed weapons. Both furiously attacking trying to find an opening but both had well put up guards. Sorey had to bank his win on this one last move, Mikleo was thinking the same. Sorey jumped in the air throwing his sword up also and came back down hitting Mikleo's staff with his hands. Mikleo smirked as he did this, he fell back allowing him to use Sorey's momentum to thrown him over allowing Mikleo to pounce on Sorey. He pressed his staff to his neck smirking victoriously.

"I won Sorey, nice tactic using your momentum to break my guard but why use your fists instead of your sword?"

"Cause people don't tend to look up." Sorey smirked at Mikleo's confused face. Mikleo instantly realized what he had meant but it was too late as the handle of his sword had knocked Mikleo on his head causing him great pain. Sorey used this distraction to Sorey kick him down, take his sword and hold up the blade to Mikleo's neck.

"Game set and match." Sorey laughed while panting. Sorey stepped off of Mikleo and sat back down. That was a tough match, he didn't even think that last move was going to work, he just kind of banked on that idea and hoped Mikleo didn't notice. Mikleo sat up and smirked at Sorey, he too had enjoyed the spar they had.

"Well a deals a deal, you don't have-", Sorey put his hand up stopping Mikleo from continuing.

"I'll tell you." Mikleo was surprised from Sorey's response. The deal was if he won he didn't have too.

"This fight made me realize something surprisingly enough." He laughed.

"You're my best friend Mik, you were always there for me, and still continue to be there for me. You're only looking out for me, and I never stop looking out for you. Its only fair that I tell you. So where do you want me to start." Mikleo smiled at Sorey, looks like he really got his best friend back after all. He sat up and motioned for Sorey to follow him to two boulders where they could both sit.

"So Sorey start from the beginning, how did you meet Rose, and don't let any details out."

"Well believe it or not, it all started with a ruin and bad con." He laughed.

* * *

"So your telling me your supposed to be the next Shepard." Mikleo said dumbfounded by what he had just heard.

"Well that's why we're going to lady lake to find out."

"Hmph, if it weren't you telling me this I would have called bluff." Mikleo sighed and looked on at the night sky thinking. "The world really is changing huh, and we up here are oblivious to all of it."

"But you could feel that something was changing right?" Sorey asked.

"I think we all did but chose to ignore it. Whatever goes down in the human world is not our problem." Mikleo said.

"Understandable but I've been down there for 5 years, I've seen some stuff Mik. Now that I know the age of chaos is coming which could multiply the troubles that are going on now, I just can't sit back and do nothing knowing that I could have helped ya know." Mikleo looked at the determination on Sorey's face; he was really serious about doing this.

"It would be like you to be the hero huh, if you're the Shepard then I guess even a pig can be a Shepard too." Mikleo laughed.

"Oh shut up, you're just jealous that I'm going to look all cool when it happens." Sorey laughed along with Mikleo. After their laughter Sorey yawned signaling his tiredness.

"You should had back and get some sleep, your wife is probably worrying." He smirked. Sorey made a face of annoyance; he knew that they weren't married since he had told him his story.

"HaHa." He said getting up. "Catch you in the morning Mik" he waved Mikleo. Mikleo nodded and watched as he went back to the village. After he was gone Mik turned his attention back to the night sky thinking about what Sorey had just told him.

"Seems like the world is starting to change." Mikleo muttered to himself before he too eventually turned in for the night.

Sorey had walked up to his house and slowly opened up the door to his house hoping not to disturb Rose only to surprisingly find out that she was up sitting on the mat he laid down for her reading the Celestial record. She looked up and smiled at Sorey.

"Hey what's up." She greeted.

"Hey to you too, why aren't you asleep." He kicked off his shoes and sat down next to her. He glanced at his bed and saw that the blonde haired girl was still asleep, that was good.

"Don't know really; guess I wanted to find out what happened between you and Mikleo. So i started reading the celestial record and I have to say it has a lot of interesting stuff in here." She smiled.

"Yep, one of my favorite reads." He chuckled. Her smiled changed into a frown when she looked Sorey over, there were signs of a scuffle on him, it looked like they had fought after all. Sorey noticed her change of mood and wondered why she seemed upset until he looked himself over and saw that his fight with Mikleo must have shown on his clothes.

"Sorey you fought with him didn't you." Rose said crossing her arms clearly unhappy.

"Yes I did but trust me it was just a spar, were good friends again I promise. We really patched things up" He said fast and in a hurry. It seemed she was satisfied with his answer as she sighed and smiled at Sorey.

"Well I'm glad to hear that, I don't think mopey Sorey was a very good look on you." She giggled. Sorey chuckled along with her joke.

"Yea and thanks for believing that we could get our friendship back."

"No problem, what are friends for." Rose said patting his arm.

"I mean it Rose, if it wasn't for you who knows, really thank you." Sorey said intensely. Rose blushed a bit from Sorey's comment. It seemed he made her do that a lot.

"Sorey its fine really." She said embarrassed. Rose wondered why he had to be so direct with everything. Now that he was back she can finally rest easy.

"Well I think it's time we go to sleep don't you think." Sorey suggested getting up.

"Yea." Rose yawned. She started to pull the sheets over her from until she saw Sorey about to lay down on the floor. He must not have anything left to sleep on since that other girl was taking up his bed. Now I feel bad for taking his sheets, I should sleep on the floor instead.

"Sorey you don't have anything to sleep on the floor; you should take your blanket."

"No Rose please, I'll be fine I've slept on harder surfaces before. This is actually a bed compared to other times." He chuckled stopping her.

"But I feel bad; I can't just let you sleep on the floor." She said back.

"Then what do you suggest? We sleep together?" he asked. Hmm that actually is not a bad idea Rose thought. There is enough space for both of them, but that would be so embarrassing, but it's better than letting him sleep on the floor.

"Yes actually that's a great idea." She said making space for him.

"Oh you're serious." Sorey said suprised. At this point Rose didn't care about how embarrassing this would be, their grown adults this shouldn't be a problem for them.

"Yes now get in now!" she demanded sternly. Sorey didn't have to be asked twice as he slowly got in the blanket. Sorey was turned to the other side with Rose doing the same both not wanting to look at each other due to the embarrassment.

"See Sorey isn't this better." Rose said.

"Yea much better than floor, thanks again Rose. Night" Sorey called not wanting to continue this awkwardness.

"Night." Rose called back. Rose closed her eyes smiling as she went to sleep. It still felt a bit akward but sleeping next to Sorey felt very nice. It seemed Sorey was thinking the same as her as he enjoyed this too. They both went to sleep with this thought on their minds awaiting what the next day would bring.

 **Well hoped you enjoyed reading it, I know I did lol. Well I wrote my first fight scene, I don't really think it's all that good since I'm not used to writing them but i tried my best and will see you next time in the either the mini or the part 2**


	5. Chapter 5: Trouble in Eleysia Pt 2

"Ok here I go." Sorey said standing a good distance away from some prickle boars. The supposed knight he had picked up was right next to him watching. Sorey cocked back the bow arrow and fired an arrow dead center into the prickle boar killing it. The others ran away as they saw their comrade fall down. Sorey walked up to the beast with the girl following behind. Sorey knelt down and took out his knife. He closed his eyes and said a silent prayer.

"I feel kind of bad for killing him, he was just minding his own business." She said sadly. Sorey understood where she was coming from, for their own survival they had to do this.

"Yes, it is sad but everything has a purpose in life. For us to survive we have to do things like this. What's important is the intention rather than the act." Sorey explained. She nodded in his understanding.

"Um you don't have to watch this part if you don't want too" He said. Sorey could tell she was not used to roughing it or doing things like this.

"No its fine, its probably better I learn just in case." He nodded and commenced with the gutting of the prickle boar. After that they continued their way around the forest gathering simple supplies and herbs for her travel.

"So Sorey you've lived like this for your whole life?" she asked him.

"Yea pretty much, it's not as bad as it looks though." Sorey looked back at the girl he was helping. Just who exactly was he helping? The way she walked, talked, and acted immediately spelled nobility. It was no wonder she was surprised by his way of living, and now he could understand why she wasn't so forthright in giving out her name. She didn't know who he was as a person. The girl was just being safe. Sorey wasn't trying to pry into knowing who she really was so he decided to wait for her to tell him, if she didn't that was also fine with him. She must have her reasons.

"Alright let's get a couple more prickle boar and we can make the stuff you need to get back to wherever it is you need to go." Alisha nodded understanding. They spent the next hour hunting prickle boar and skinning them. Now they were sitting down by a tree taking short break before going back to Eleysia.

"Sorey your hometown is truly a beautiful place, it's so peaceful here." Alisha commented.

"Yea, I love this place, but peace can get a bit boring though don't you agree." He laughs. Sorey cut half of an apple with his dagger and offered one to Alisha. She thanked him for the piece and took it eating the fruit.

"Yea it can, but it's a much better alternative then what's happening now." She said sadly. Sorey stared at the sky thinking about what she said.

"That is also true, the world is not perfect and neither are people. But their always people that will try to help the world, right? I can tell on your face that you want to do the same. Most wouldn't expect that from someone of nobility" Sorey smiled as she saw her surprised face.

"Don't worry I won't pry into who you are. Just know that you aren't the only one that wants to help this world get better, so cheer up." Alisha nodded affirmly smiling.

"Thanks for that Sorey. Sorry for bringing down the mood."

"Don't worry, I understand. We all have those days." He chuckled.

"Let's change the subject, so Sorey how did you meet your wife?" Sorey chocked on the apple he was eating as he suddenly got caught off guard from what he heard. He started coughing trying to get the apple out. Alisha gasped and gave him water which he gladly took as he washed the food down. Alisha patted him on his back as he was coughing.

"Are you ok Sorey?" she asked.

"Yea it was just your question caught me off guard." He chuckled at the situation. He couldn't actually tell her how they met so he had to make something up.

"Well it all started when I was in a rush like I usually am. Then I bumped into the prettiest sight of red that I have ever saw."

 **LINE BREAK**

"The big oaf bumped in to me, felt like I was running into a brick wall." Rose laughed. The three Seraphim around her started to laugh also. Rose was originally going to set off with the girl of nobility and Sorey but a few of the villagers invited Rose to breakfast, they wanted to get to know the wife of their beloved Sorey. Sorey encouraged her to hang out with them, advised it would be good. The three that were with her was Piko, he was a tall seraph with blue hair. He was basically your classic joker. Then there was Misaki and Mikasa, both twins with blue hair. The only way to tell them apart was one had blue eyes and the other red. The both of them were the classic twins finishing off each other sentences.

"Yup that totally sounds like Sorey, alright. When he's in a rush he doesn't stop." Piko laughed.

"So what happened after that, how'd you." Mikasa started.

"Fall in love?" Misaki finished for her. Rose looked down thinking. She figured they would ask her something like this. It didn't catch her off guard, she just had to add some truths to a lie to make it believable. Basically, a half truth.

"Well after that I was suspicious of him. So, I followed him to see where he was going. Turns out he was just scavenging in some old ruin."

"After all these years, he's still obsessed with ruins" Misaki complained shaking her head.

"Sorey hasn't change one bit" Piko laughed. "Continue Rose"

"I noticed he was scavenging out some orb high up on the wall. Now I'm a traveling merchant so it caught my interest and I wanted to see if I could buy it from him ya see. I went up to him while he was still up there and that's when he accidently picked the orb out of the wall making it fall. Luckily, I caught the orb, but that's also when things got complicated" She said frowning. The others looked at each other wondering what made her upset.

"The ruin geek tried to over sell the product! To me of all people! An actual merchant! He didn't even look fit enough to sell honey to a bear" She huffed thinking back to that day. Now that was the full truth right there. She hates it when people try to swindle her. The others in the room laughed at what Rose had told them.

"Ruin geek good one Rose" Piko laughed. "Definitely going to use that one the next time I see him".

"Yup Sorey isn't very good at lying "Misaki started

"Why wouldn't you be mad." Mikasa finished.

"But Rose it sounds to me like you were trying to-". Rose abruptly cut Misaki off before she could get started.

"Any who, after that he apologized and offered to take me out to eat after that whole ordeal." That part was sort of true disregarding the whole thing that happened after said orb came out. They were both hungry after that and Sorey offered, he even payed for the both of them despite Rose insisting she enough to cover herself, but Sorey told her that his gramps said " _Always treat women with respect and be nice to them no matter what_ ". The chief had taught him well.

"And from there our destination so happened to be on the same route. Along the journey we talked and bonded. One thing led to another and he said those two words." Rose said fondly letting her imagination run wild. The others were looking at her smiling.

"Gotta go!" She said. "The fool did not get any of the hints I left for him so I kissed him and that's when he got it." The group ended up laughing along with Rose. She figured Sorey seemed like the oblivious type and by the reactions from the room she was right.

"Then he said he loved me and we got married."

"Geez I knew Sorey wasn't that much of a romantic, but gotta go!" Piko couldn't stop himself from laughing. "Good old Sorey"

"Should have known only him." Mikasa started giggling,

"What a dunce". Misaka said shaking her head. Their laughing seemed to a stop as they saw Mikleo walk into the cabin with his usual serious look.

"Hey Rose mind taking a walk with me?". Rose read the look he was giving him and nodded understanding. He had wanted to talk about her and Sorey's current predicament she assumed.

"It was fun talking to you guys but I need to talk to Mikleo". Rose waved her goodbyes to the group as they said goodbye to her. Mikleo motioned his hand for her to follow as they started walking around the village. Mikleo offered his arm for Rose too latch on to which she did. _Seems Mikleo is a gentleman too_ she thought.

"So, I assumed Sorey told you the whole truth about us?" Rose asked. Mikleo nodded thinking back to their little chat.

"Yes he told me everything, pretty nice ring to keep up that act though" he smirked.

"That is a whole other situation which Sorey can tell you but yes, you know so what is it you want to talked about, Sorey told you the gist of it".

"I know but I need you to convince Sorey for me".

"Convince him of what?" Rose asked unsure of his demand.

"Convince him that he needs me along your journey". Rose looked up at Mikleo surprised. She wasn't expecting to hear that at all.

"you're his best friend, why wouldn't he let you to come".

"Because Sorey has the biggest hero complex ever, always wanting to help and putting other's needs before his". Mikleo knew his best friend well and he knew that was what got him into trouble. Back when they were younger they went exploring as usual but were surprised by a prickleboar. Sorey immediately got in the way and protected Mikleo. He ended up sustaining minor injuries from it. Of course, now Mikleo didn't need protecting but he knew Sorey would jump in no matter how strong you are.

"Yep I've noticed" Rose giggled thinking back to the time he saved her twice.

"And he won't stop, I wanna come and help him see his journey through. I'm not letting him disappear again". Rose saw that Mikleo wasn't going to budge about his decision on joining her and Sorey on their grand quest. She smiled at Mikleo and nodded firmly. Mikleo smiled back and nodded.

"Thank you, he's probably going to be stubborn about it but I feel that he will definitely listen to you." Mikleo said as they continued their walk.

"What gave you that impression?" Rose asked.

"Doesn't look like he's said no to you so far, has he?"

"Well we haven't been on the journey for long but I can be very persuasive" she smirked.

"I'd imagine so, oh and speak of the Shepard". Mikleo and Rose saw Sorey walking back with the girl carrying boar skins. Rose broke her stare when she felt Mikleo unhook their arms.

"When the time comes convince him please" Mikleo nodded his head at Sorey before turning back into the village. Rose watched Mikleo retreating figure keeping the last thing he said on her mind. She broke her stare and looked back at Sorey and Alisha coming up to them.

"Hey Rose" Sorey greeted.

"Morning Rose" the girl greeted too.

"Hey how was the hunt" she asked. Sorey lifted up the bag smiling at her.

"It's enough to make a bag and rations for her journey".

"Wish I could have gone, haven't hunted in a while".

"Oh did you not have fun w-". Rose covered his mouth as she realized he was about to talk about Seraphim.

"You talk too much hurry up and help her make the supply's" she chuckled nervously. The girl of royalty raised an eyebrow at their weird behavior.

"Yea your right, you can head to my house. I'll meet up with you soon, just need to talk to Rose".

"Alright, thank-you again Sorey. I learned a lot from that hunting trip" She bowed her head and left for his house.

"Geez Sorey you almost spilled the beans" Rose scolded.

"My bad I almost forgot" he laughed "Anyway how was lunch with Piko and the twins?"

"Oh it was nice, Piko real funny guy, and the twins were cool. Though it was weird how they finished-"

"Each other's sentences" Sorey and Rose laughed at the act.

"But yea their good people, this whole place is great. It's a wonderful place that you grew up in Sorey".

'Yea I know, I understand why gramps try's so hard to protect it. That's why humans never find this place. His domain makes it impossible for just anyone to come here." Rose made a silent o sound as she realized why the path he took was so unfamiliar to her.

"Smart man the village chief" Rose commented. Sorey nodded back thinking the same.

"So when does she leave?" Rose asked.

"As soon as were done making her stuff, and then we will see her off".

"That's good, so what did you learn about her from the hunt?" Rose asked.

"What makes you think I learned something?" he asked teasingly. She playfully elbowed him for the snark comment.

"Cause your just as curious as I am" she smiled.

"Well she's definitely a girl of nobility, from the way she walks all the way to her mannerism". Rose nodded confirming her suspicion. "Seems like a pretty good fighter but she has no hunting experience, pretty innocent girl"

"Ive seen her uniform before to, she's definitely from Hyland".

"Then I guess we might see her once we get there".

'Yea maybe, or maybe not if you don't hurry up and help make her rations, now come on!". She hooked her arms around Sorey and started dragging him along.'

"Hey! Why are you coming along?" Sorey asked confused.

"Cause the more help the quicker she can go, right?". Sorey gave her an appreciate nod as they both walked to help the girl of nobility.

 **LINE BREAK**

"Sorey, Rose. Thank you for all your help, I really appreciate what you have done for me" The girl said bowing her head.

"No problem just glad to help" Sorey responded.

"Yea its really no trouble at all" Rose smiled.

"I really do thank you again, you took in stranger like me and gave me supplies, and food for my journey. If you ever come to Hyland I'll be sure to repay that debt". This girl was a very compassionate one. Sorey never doubted for once she'd be a threat to the village or the seraphim, shame she can't see them like her and Rose do.

"Before I take my leave I do have something to say". She paused looking down as she was contemplating on whether or not she wanted to say what she wanted to say, but it seemed like she made her decision as she looked back up at them with assured eyes.

"Alisha, that's my name"

"Well glad I finally got to your name, Alisha" Rose said bringing out her hand. Alisha smiled and shake her hand and then moved on to Sorey who also offered his.

"Alisha, it's a lovely name befitting a lovely girl" Sorey commented. Alisha couldn't help the slight blush that came on to her face as she withdrew her hand. Rose frowned and jabbed Sorey in the ribs causing him to wince.

"Ow what was that for!" he yelled. Rose ignored his complaint looking forward at the blushing Alisha. Mikleo and the rest of the village chuckled at the two's antics, even the chief had a grin on his face.

"Well I'm off, thank-you both once again and I hope you have success in all your endeavors and a happy married life". Sorey chuckled as he said his thanks, he forgets sometimes that they have to keep up this marriage act. Rose thanked her too smiling back. Alisha started to make her leave but stopped she forgot one more thing she wanted to tell them. She turned around and walked back up to Sorey and Rose.

"Sorey I just wanted to let you know that I really do believe that the Seraphim exist and that there not just some children tales. I don't know why but being around this place, I feel like the Seraphim are with me right now". She held her hand to her heart and closed her eyes hoping to get the feeling once again.

"Also, I advise you guys to come to the festival being held in Hyland and take the test to become the Shepard. I don't know why but whenever I read the tales of the Shepard, he seems to remind me a lot of you". Rose nudged Sorey in the ribs. She was smiling at him, he chuckled while looking down. He looked back up to see that Alisha had left, he stayed until he could no longer see her in the distance.

"Well well, Shepard Sorey doesn't sound that bad huh" Rose nudged him playfully.

"I guess it doesn't, but nothing wrong with Shepard Rose right?".

"Meh, we will just have to see wont we, so when do we leave"

"Tomorrow morning, some things I need to take care of before we go". Seems Rose didn't like the sound of that. They really needed to get going, they were already delayed as it is. Rose also had other matters she had to attend to once they get to Hyland, but she put that thought at the back of her mind for now.

"Sorey we were supposed to be on the path 2 days ago, now your pushing it". She affirmed what she said by pushing her finger to his chest.

"I know I know but it needs to be done, we will leave bright and early, that I promise ok". Sorey took her finger and held her hand assuring. Rose sighed looking at his smiling face. Sorey seemed to have a way with getting her to agree with him when he could.

"Fine but next time we eat out your buying"

"Wait but I bought last time" he complained. Rose stuck her tongue out playfully and walked away to his house. Sorey chuckled and walked over to his grandpa.

"So, is everybody ready for tomorrow?" he asked

"Yes Sorey stop worrying, geez you should hurry up and tell her how you feel already". Sorey blushed hard, he wasn't expecting that. Sorey realized something, he was married so why would he need to confess his feelings…..his grandfather always knew. Wait but he didn't have feelings for Rose…he thinks so.

"Wait when did you-". His grandpa stopped Sorey speech as he stood silently. Sorey wondered why he looked like that but that's when he could also feel something in the air. Something was wrong here.

"It seems somebody has entered my domain, and they are trying to hide themselves". His grandpa jumped in the air to the top of the gate looking over the land. The village chief released his energy making sure to let the intruder know that he is not welcome.

"Everybody there is an intruder in our domain, find them but do not engage them, we do not know how dangerous they will be. As soon as you do report back!". The Seraphim of the village nodded understanding and immediately moved out in search of the intruder. Sorey looked in Mikleo's direction, he didn't have to say anything as Mikleo nodded understanding. He wanted them to both go together just in case it was something they couldn't handle by themselves. Before Sorey took off he remembered that Rose was still in the house, hopefully she hadn't heard. He wanted to keep her safe and away from whatever was out there, this was the village's problem and he didn't want her involved. He caught a figure moving behind and saw it was Piko and the twins Mikasa and Misaki; he could definitely use them to keep Rose at bay.

"Piko and the twins I need a favor!" Sorey called out to them.

"Sorey now's not the best time for-". Sorey spoke over Piko stopping him from continuing that sentence.

"I understand but it has to deal with Rose, I need you guys to stay with her and distract her from all this until it's all over".

"Why would we need-"Mikasa started

"To do that" Misaki finished.

"Cause if Rose finds out then she will definitely want to come help and I want to keep her out of this, we don't know how dangerous this intruder is. This is our problem and I'd rather we dealt with it." Piko listened to what Sorey had said. He had a valid point about it being the villages problem, despite her being his wife this is something they should deal with it, but he was most likely being over protective over his wife.

"Ok I understand, you don't want to put her in trouble, we will make sure to keep her distracted". Piko gave him a thumb up, Sorey returned the gesture smiling at him. Mikasa and Misaki nodded assuring at him promising they would keep her safe. They left for Sorey's house to hopefully keep Rose there.

"You ready Mikleo?" Sorey asked.

"Yea just make sure not to slow me down" He smirked. Sorey chuckled as they both left to find said intruder. The village chief looked over at the two-leaving hoping they would be alright. He thought grimly about the intruder entering his domain, this was definitely different from a random human wandering in. this thing was going out of its way to not be found, he's lucky he was able to catch his presence. This recent invasion did not bode well for him, he only hoped when Sorey leaves that his journey goes well.

 **Line Break**

The search for the intruder has not been going well, so far Sorey and Mikleo haven't been able to come up with anything showing signs of the intruder. They had passed other villagers asking if they had come up with anything, they had no luck either. Sorey and Mikleo decided to look near the temple of the Mabinogi ruins to see if they could get any luck over there.

"Man nothing, where could they be?" Mikleo asked out loud.

"I would like to say that gramps made a mistake but gramps never makes a mistake" Sorey commented. Sorey leaned back against on the tree to take a small breather. It was such a nice day, sadly the intruder had to ruin that. It was quiet and no prickleboars around to bother anyone…Sorey immediately realized it was dead silent around here, that was not right.

"Mikleo its quiet around here" Sorey told him. Mikleo's eyes widened realizing the same thing.

"Your right, there's not even pirckle boars in sight, something is disturbing the nature around here". Mikleo wondered just what could have been hiding here to disturb the nature of the forest. Just what were they dealing with here, they had to be extra careful here. Sorey had a good idea of what could be disturbing the forest this much but he was hoping that's not what he thinks it is.

"AHHHHHHHHH!". Mikleo and Sorey looked around stunned at the voice that just yelled in agony.

"That sounds like Mason! C'mon!" Mikleo yelled running to the sound of the voice with Sorey in tow. Sorey and Mikleo passed by a pillar were shocked by what they came upon. It was something that was standing over an injured Mason. It looked human but there was something else about him that was completely vile and evil. Mikleo couldn't believe what he was seeing. Sorey too but he had a great guess about what he was.

"Mikleo I'm pretty sure he's a hellion!" Sorey yelled readying up.

"A what! You weren't kidding about all this were you, I never knew they could look so human" Mikleo said getting ready as well. The man turned around smiling as he saw others were disturbing his feeding time. The man had pale skin and long yellow hair. He was sporting black garb that looked lightweight and professional which was very odd, maybe he was a professional hitman before he turned into a hellion.

"Ah even more appetizers, I was originally looking for the main course but you boys should do just fine along with your friend" he chuckled.

"Stay away from Mason!" Sorey yelled.

"Sure". In a matter of seconds the man was right in front of Sorey and Mikleo surprising both, he had dangerous speed. The man hit Sorey sending him flying breaking a couple trees in his way. Sorey held up his sword blocking the impact but that didn't stop the pain he felt from flying through those trees.

"Sorey!" Mikleo put up a water shield as the man kept on hitting Mikleo pushing him back until he hit the back of a wall.

"Stop resisting! I don't like it when my food fights back!" he cackled.

"Oh, you haven't seen nothing yet!" Mikleo dropped the shield and hit the man in the face with his staff. He tapped his staff on the ground summoning a water sprout pushing him in the air. Mikleo jumped and smacked the man back.

"Now Sorey!" Mikleo yelled. The man looked surprised as he looked back and saw the boy he had just sent flying standing up. Sorey winded up his sword and as soon as he got close smacked him with all the power he could muster sending him flying toppling through trees and pillars. The man stopped himself skidding across the ground. He couldn't believe the power that human had, it was unbelievable

"When I get that kid I sw-" he couldn't finish his sentence as Sorey didn't give him no time to breath. He came crashing down with his sword, the Hellion blocked it with his bare hands just in time.

"Boy where did you get this power, it will be delightfully trying to eat you up!" he pushed Sorey back and advanced on him with a series of punches and kicks. Sorey did his best to block each one but it was starting to get taxing being on the defensive. He was not ready to face this type of opponent, neither him or Mikleo. A wall of water came up blocking the man and Sorey. Sorey jumped back and look to his right seeing Mikleo by his side.

"Sorey this guy is tough, we need to back off" Mikleo advised.

"I would love too, but Mason is still out there and besides." He looked at the hellions smiling face. "I don't think he's the type to let his prey go so easily"

"I was here hunting for the main course but who knew I would have so much fun hunting down you appetizers, in fact you aren't even appetizers any more. You've just added yourself on as side dishes as well" he cackled.

"Who is the main course your talking about! Is it Mason! Why Him!?" Mikleo yelled.

"Of course, not the main course has already left". Sorey raised his eyebrows what could he mean by that?

"Well prepare yourse-"

"ENOUGH!". Sorey and Mikleo looked back and saw it was the voice of their grandfather. The other villagers were with him ready to fight with the chief but it didn't seem like the chief would need their help, he was exuding his energy all over.

"Sorey!". That was the voice of Rose! He thought he had told Piko and them to keep her busy. She ran up to the rest of the villagers with Piko and the rest in tow.

"I'm sorry Sorey but Rose is difficult to fool!" Piko yelled. Rose stopped in her tracks though once she saw the elder chief, even she could feel the energy he was putting out. He wasn't playing games. She saw that Sorey and Mikleo looked pretty beat and roughed up, Sorey more than Mikleo. She also took a look at what caused them those injuries and the whole panic in the village. Her eyes widened once she caught look of the man.

"Luminare" she mumbled. No one took note of what she said but Mikleo noticed the look of surprise on her face, like she was seeing a ghost.

"If you don't leave now you will force my hand!". The chief stomped once creating a blast that made the man jump back. He didn't show it but he knew if he fought this old man he wasn't coming out alive.

"Fine I've had my fun, I'll leave the appetizers and side dishes alone. The main course has already left, so I need to hurry ahahahha". The man jumped in the air leaving the forest and the village for good. The village elder sighed as he walked up to Sorey and Mikleo.

"You boys ok?" he asked.

"Yea just a bit roughed up, he hits hard" Sorey groaned.

"Yea I'm fine but Sorey should be looked at, the brute forgot what defense meant" Mikleo joked nudging him a bit minding his injuries.

"Well as long as your fine". He looked back to the rest and ordered them to go find Mason and treat him. Sorey looked to Rose and walked up to her.

"Rose-". He didn't get to finish as Rose punched him in the face knocking him down. This surprised everyone around them including the village chief.

"Ow wha-". He didn't get to finish that sentence as he saw Rose giving him her infamous " _look_ ". She was angry and when she was angry she liked to hit things.

"I should give you another black eye for not telling me anything, what the hell Sorey!". Sorey looked at her sadly, it seemed she was really worried about him. "I told you, were in this together didn't I". he nodded his head affirming her statement. She sighed and knelt down checking him over.

"I'm sorry I know we are but I didn't want you involved. I didn't know what we were dealing with, and this is the villages problem. You're not supposed to get caught up in this all" he tried to reason with her. Rose was about to retort back but the village chief spoke over her before she could speak.

"He has a point my dear. This was a problem of the village, we wouldn't want someone outside of here involved in our troubles, it wouldn't be good". The village chief smiled at Sorey. Sorey gave him a nod of appreciation.

"Even so, I am your wife, right?" she asked directing the question to Sorey.

"I mean yea b-"

"So, that means that I've basically been assimilated into the village, right?" she directed this question to the elder chief. The elder chief gave a small laugh, she had him pegged there.

"Well she does have a point there, you are just like us but please forgive Sorey. He just wanted to protect you that's all". The village chief nodded to them and left leaving just Sorey, Mikleo, and Rose left there.

"Well at least your safe". She suddenly hugged him taking him by surprise but he returned the hug no less. She let go and grabbed his ear, she stood up and made him get up with her.

"Ow ow Rose!" he complained.

"it's punishment, Mikleo your roughed up too, c'mon I'll go help patch both of you up" she said still holding on to Sorey's ear.

"Thank you Rose but I'm fine, I can patch myself up. Give Sorey the attention he needs" Mikleo chuckled.

"Oh I definitely will!" she tugged on his ear making him yelp again. Mikleo chuckled following the two back to the village.

 **LINE BREAK**

It was night time and Sorey could not sleep. He tossed and turned trying to go to sleep but today's events were still on his mind. Such evilness that exuded from that hellion, and his strength was crazy. He didn't know that humans could ever turn into things like that, the world was always surprising him wasn't it. He turned to face Rose who was a few inches apart from her sleeping soundly. He frowned looking at her; things were going to get dangerous but she is in this just as much as he is and he has to accept that, but that didn't mean he wouldn't stop looking out for her. Rose is a strong fighter and Sorey knows together that they can do this. He turned back looking up thinking about the hellion and what he said earlier.

"The main course had already left" he mumbled. Nobody in the village had left, no one here ever leaves, just who could he be talking about.

"No way" Sorey said realizing it. He was after Alisha this entire time, she's the only one that had left this morning. He has to leave now if he has any hope of catching up to her. Tomorrow could not wait. He turned over and nudged Rose trying to wake her up.

"Rose wake up" Sorey said nudging her.

"What is it Sorey" she mumbled her eyes still closed.

'Rose we need to leave now".

"What now? It's the middle of the night". She rubbed her eyes and sat up looking at him grumpily. Sorey smiled at her grumpy expression.

"I'm sorry but we have to go now, the hellion from earlier is after Alisha". Rose eyes widened remembering the hellion. She forgot all about their encounter with him, but she knew something about that hellion that she could not let Sorey know.

"Yes I remember, if that guy really is after Alisha then we best hurry". Sorey nodded and started to pack his things. Rose did the same also, while packing she remembered what Mikleo had told her.

"Sorey before we go I wanted to tell you something?". Rose grabbed some things off a shelf putting it into his bag before turning around.

"Sure what is it?" He asked.

"I think we should take Mikleo on the journey with us". Sorey eyes widened surprised by the question, he wasn't expecting that. He didn't understand why she was insisting on him coming.

"Rose why do you want to include Mikleo in our journey?"

"I believe that Mikleo would be a great help. The Shepard before you also had seraph companions".

"But I don't want Mikleo to take on the burden we took" Sorey said.

"How do you know if you never asked him, Sorey you don't want him to come cause you're still trying to protect him". Sorey looked down thinking upon what Rose said. She was right about that; him worrying about Mikleo is what started their fight in the first place, if he left suddenly now he doesn't think he'd ever forgive him.

"Once again your right Rose" he chuckled.

"Im always right" she laughed too.

"Ok, lets go fin-"

"Glad you came to your senses" Mikleo said from the corner of the room.

"What the!" Rose said jumping back bumping into Sorey who caught Rose by her shoulders. She was holding her heart from the panic she just got.

"So when do we le-OW!". Rose punched Mikleo in his arm making him wince.

"Don't scare me like that! How'd you even sneak up on us".

"Jeez I'm sorry and I have my ways, control your woman Sorey"

"Oh I'll show you control!" before Rose could inflict further harm on Mikleo Sorey intervened by grabbing her shoulders stopping her advance.

"Anyway Mikleo are you sure you'd want to come, there's a lot of-"

"Shut up already, look you don't have to shoulder this all by yourself. You have Rose and now you have me. I understand the burdens and willing to go through with it. After all your my best friend." Sorey smiled at Mikleo. He held out his fist at Mikleo. Mikleo fist bumped Sorey back smiling.

"Alright if you guys are done bromancing I think we got to leave". Mikleo and Sorey nodded and followed Rose out of the building. As the group reached the gate to Eleysia Sorey stopped. Rose and Mikleo also stopped walking noticing Sorey looking back at his home town. Mikleo sighed as he put a hand on his shoulder gaining his attention.

"Don't worry we will come back again eventually" he smiled.

"I know but, its hard leaving again ya know".

"Youll be fine"

"I hope gramps understands, and the rest of the village. I even made them go through all that trouble" Sorey chuckled disappointed

"Who's to say all that trouble went to waste" Mikleo smiled. Sorey look confused until he heard footsteps and saw his grandpa walking to him.

"You were gonna leave without saying goodbye" the chief smiled.

"Sorry gramps but we were in a rush" Sorey apologized.

"I'm sure you were, please be careful out there Sorey. Make sure to take care of yourself and her" he said nodding to Rose. "And to you my dear the same". She nodded affirmably.

"Mikleo make sure he doesn't do anything stupid alright".

"That's why I'm coming along" Mikleo chuckled getting a playful hit from Sorey.

"Ah but before you go, I think Rose deserves a special Eleysia sendoff". Sorey's eyes widened at hearing that.

"Rose your gonna want to see this". Sorey grabbed her hand and ushered her to a nearby rock as they both sat down.

"See what?" she asked. At that moment, Rose couldn't believe what she was seeing. It looked like fireworks at first but it was more than just that. It was coming from the Seraphin of the village. They were making this beautiful display of lights, it was absolutely amazing.

"Sorey this is amazing" she said in wonder.

"I know, usually we do this for festivals but I convinced gramps to do this before we left" he smiled.

"Really then why are they doing it, not that I'm complaining" she said smiling still. She saw Piko, Mikasa, and Misaki involved too as they waved at her and Sorey.

"Rose if it wasn't for you I don't think id rekindle my friendship with Mikleo, and you also always assured me that my family would be accepting of me and for that I thank you. Also, thanks for always fixing me up, as you can tell I'm prone to getting hurt". He laughed. Rose smiled at him and immediately pulled Sorey into a hug. He was a bit surprised by the gesture but puts his arms around her back as he returned the hug taking in the sweet scent of her hair.

"You didn't have to do this Sorey but thank you, thank you for showing me this amazing apart of your world" she said still embracing him. She broke the embrace to rest her head on his shoulder as they both watched the fireworks.

"Love birds" Mikleo chuckled as he stood next to his grandpa.

"Mock them now but the same will happen to you, trust me on that" the chief laughed.

"Well ill make sure she's not as scary as Sorey's women".

"Mikleo no matter how nice a girl may seem….they are all scary. Remember that" The chief chuckled.

 **LINE BREAK**

 **Chapter is finally done and I apologize for the really long wait but life got busy and I'm trying to focus on my studies so im not abandoning the story but I can't guarantee fast updates. I will try my best to get the next chapter out faster but no promises on that, I just hope you enjoyed the chapter and see you in the next one.**


	6. Chapter 6: Come forth Shepherd!

**Chapter 6: Come forth Shepherd!**

"It shouldn't be much longer now" Mikleo commented jumping down a small ridge. Sorey followed suit just like Mikleo. He turned to Rose as he helped her down the ridge. She thanked Sorey for helping her down the ridge.

"You sure this path was shorter than the way we came back" Rose said skeptical after what happened last time.

"I'm not Sorey, of course I'm sure this path is the right one" he retorted while at the same time mocking Sorey. Sorey rolled his eyes as he followed Mikleo and Rose through the forest. The walk wasn't very long at all as the group had finally came out of the forest into the open.

"Wow were here, can't believe we got here so quick. You weren't kidding around Mikleo" Rose said.

"Told you" Mikleo said bluntly.

"Wow so that's lady lake huh" Sorey pointed to the city in the distance. It looked even better than what was described. They weren't even that close and he could see the amazingly designed buildings.

"What!? You've travelled for this long and haven't come to Lady Lake?" Rose asked. She thought a guy like him would stop by places like this to sell his wares.

"Well the world was still pretty new to me and I was meeting other humans for the first time so I avoided populated places most of the time" he chuckled.

"I guess, but that also explains why you couldn't sell anything you found in those ruins".

"Yea I guess so huh" Sorey laughed.

"Well we should probably get a move on so we don't miss the festival, let's go boys" Rose said pushing them both along the path.

Their walk was quaint and nice, well until they met up with some really above strong averages wolves which were probably hellions, though with the three of them they weren't too much of a problem allowing them to make it to the bridge. Once they made it to the bridge they ran into some problems, it seems they were checking everyone coming in at the moment.

"Oh man, what's the line for?" Sorey asked. They were standing behind a couple people as the guards where talking to each person up front.

"Must be the war" Rose said sadly.

"So there trying to keep track of who enters and leaves, things must be bad" Mikleo deducted. Sorey looked at most of the people ahead of him, they weren't looking too good, must be casualties of the fighting. He looked down clenching his fists in anger. Sorey was going to definitely fix this, he has too.

"C'mon the lines moving" Mikleo said shoving him forward. He looked up and saw he was standing in the front of the hyland knight. Up close these guys look pretty intimidating, probably cause you can't see their face.

"Name and please state your business?" The guard asked looking at him and his clipboard.

"Sorey Wick sir"

"Rose Valentine as well sir". The guard looked at them both not seeing anything unusual about these two aside from the male's sword. He normally would overlook something like that but these were dangerous times so they had to ask about everything

"Were here for the festival sir" Rose said nicely.

"I see, traveling couples are common" The knight said writing something down, it was probably what he just said that he took note off.

"But why the sword?" he asked looking at Sorey. Rose was going to explain but Sorey beat her to the punch. He put his arm around Rose bringing her closer to him.

"I know it seems odd considering were coming to a festival but there's a lot of dangers out there now a day, especially during this time. I don't want the most important person in my life getting hurt" He smiled looking at Rose. She was stunned for a bit surprised by his action but quickly recollected herself.

"I can protect myself sir but my husband tends to be overprotective" she laughed putting her hand on his chest. He looked at the two for a moment and then wrote something down on the clipboard.

"You may pass, stay safe and enjoy the festival". The two nodded and walked past on the bridge arm in arm.

'Well well Sorey, you didn't botch that one at all" Mikleo chuckled.

"I'm surprised as well. You even made me swoon" Rose chuckled resting her on his shoulder.

"What can I say, I'm a natural". Rose elbowed for that joke causing Mikleo to laugh at the two.

"Alright pulling of the sword won't start for another few hours so that gives us plenty of time too-" Rose stopped talking as she saw a familiar sight coming towards her. It was 2 people from her merchant guild waving at her and calling her.

"Boss hey!" the young girl yelled at Rose.

"Felice! Talfryn!" Rose yelled back running up to the two. She gave them both a big hug as they returned the gesture.

"Who's that Sorey?" Mikleo asked. He knew they were probably her friends but it never really hurt to know.

"Oh, I think that's Rose's friends from her traveling merchant crew." He explained.

"Wow so she runs a whole business" Mikleo said looking at Rose. "Makes me wonder how someone like her ended up with someone like you".

"Oh, shut it". Sorey looked back to Rose who was delighted at seeing her crew again

"So how has Eguille been managing?" Rose asked.

"He's doing fine, I mean you are the one that learned from him" the boy named Talfryn laughed.

"Yea I know but you know he's not a people person" Rose complained. The last job he was in charge of he ended up scaring the client, luckily Eguille's attitude didn't stop them from buying their products.

"Well that is true but don't worry we have been taking care of the negotiations while Eguille handles the finances" Felice explained.

"Though I'm not gonna lie, he is good for convincing the unwilling" Talfryn joked.

"Rose is that the man you said you'd be traveling with for that special mission" Felice looked at Sorry who was hanging back enjoying the sights. "He's cute"

"Oh yea, let me introduce him too you. Sorey c'mon" Rose yelled. Sorey broke his gaze from the people walking across as he heard Rose calling him. He and Mikleo walked up to Rose and her friends.

"let me introduce you to two of my good friends from the merchant guild".

"Talfryn Ayn at your service". He tipped his hat off to Sorey. Sorey nodded back.

"And Felice Ayn at your service as well" she gave Sorey playful salute.

"Nice to meet you both, sorry for stealing Rose from you guys" he said rubbing the back of his head. Sorey didn't realize till now. He was basically taking Rose away from her friends.

"Don't worry about it, boss has been away from us before it ain't any different now"

"Besides she said you were a very important client so I'm sure it-" Felicia stopped talking as her eyes caught something on Rose's and Sorey's fingers. Rings but not just any ring, it had a beautiful dragon design on them, one blue for Sorey and the other pink for Rose. That's when she put two and two together and lost it. She made the sharpest squeal making all the guys throw their hands to their ears. She grabbed Rose's hands and looked at her happily.

"Rose why didn't you tell me you got married, you didn't have to do that. You could have told us!". It of course surprised Talfryn who noticed the rings as well and chuckled.

"So, you lied about a secret mission just to get hitched" he laughed.

"No of course not!" She yelled blushing.

"It's just a front nothing more" she explained still blushing. Sorey could do nothing but look around avoiding their gazes.

"Look! This!" Rose said holding up her ring. "And this!". She took Sorey's hand showing off his ring as well emphasizing her point.

"There just fronts for the special job, so quit filling your head with silly ideas". Felicia looked back and forth between the two. Rose had explained to them that she would have to travel a long while with this client considering he needed their other services so it would make sense, she would believe her for now but she knew something is up with these two.

"Felecia let's not jump to conclusions. Boss knows what she's doing. Besides we also ran into her at a good time, we need to discuss important things remember" Taryfn said.

"Oh fine, I'll bother her later about her adventures but now we will talk business". Felicia leaned into Rose and whispered something in her ears. Rose nodded understanding and looked back to Sorey and Mikleo.

"Sorey I have to take care if something with the guild, I'll try and make it back in time for the ceremony but I kind of doubt I will".

"But Rose the pulling of the sword" Sorey said. She put a hand on his shoulder and smiled up at the young man.

"Sorey, you and Mikleo got that handled. Not sure why but I'm positive it's going to be you. Trust me, my guts are never wrong". Rose looked to the two and waved as she left with her friends.

"Boss who's Mikleo?" Felicia asked.

"I'll explain that to you later" she laughed.

Sorey watched her retreating form until she disappeared within the crowd of people.

"So, Shepherd what do we do until the ceremony?" Mikleo asked. Sorey ignored the last bit as he continued his walk-through Lady lake.

"We will look around the city for now and wait until the ceremony starts" he said looking back at Mikleo. Mikleo shrugged his shoulders seeing no problem with the situation at the moment.

 **Line Break**

Rose sat near a table with the twins Talfryn and Felice. There was also another new figure with them sitting at the table as well. He was a tall man probably standing at 6'3 with well-kept hair and a scruffy beard. He was currently smirking at Rose from the seat across from her

"So, princess how's go the job. The client is not giving you any trouble, are they? And what's up with the ring?" Eguille asked wondering what she has been up to since her absence from the guild.

"The ring isn't what you think it is, and the mission has been going fine. I think we came here to talk about other business and not my business" she hissed at Eguille. He was always a nosy one when it came to her life.

"Right I guess we will talk about that later but for now look at this". He brought out a letter and slid it over to Rose. Rose took the parchment and read the contents of the letter. Eguille saw her face change from surprised to stern the more she read it. After she finished she put the letter down and looked down probably trying to still process what she read. Eguille did the same when he read it as well.

"So why? Why her?" Rose asked still looking down.

"I'm still thinking about it as well, it doesn't make any sense, the client wants to meet up with us soon. Preferably before the ceremony starts" he said.

"Fine we will see what they have to say. Tell the rest to get ready. This doesn't bode well with me". Tafryn and Felicia gave her a nod as they left the table leaving just Eguille and Rose. Eguille couldn't help but watch Rose who was now in her thinking pose, it seems this job is disturbing her.

"Hmmmmm, I know that face. You wouldn't be thinking so hard if this wasn't seriously bothering you. What's up?" Eguille asked.

"Well it kind of has to do with current job I'm on". Eguille raised his brow at that as he leaned in wanting to hear more. Rose smiled and got up as she motioned for him to follow.

"I'll tell you more on the way" she smiled as they both left to meet up with their contact. "It should give you reason as to why I feel weary".

 **Line Break**

"So how do we get in?" Mikleo wondered looking at the long line of people. After touring the city, the time came for the two to finally attend the ceremony but sadly it seems everybody and their mothers were also trying to get in as well. The line was not only long but people were also being checked to make sure nobody was armed.

"Idk" Sorey said getting in his thinking pose. They could wait but that would be too long. He couldn't believe he forgot but he still has to find Alisha, the hellion was still after her. He would have to sneak in back.

"Mikleo your basically invisible to everyone, you should go on ahead and see what's inside, I'll sneak in through the back" Sorry said.

"You, sneak? Laughable but fine, I shall see you inside" Mikleo chuckled moving past everybody.

"Such a snarky bastard" Sorey murmured before moving in around the back. Sorey walked around near the back. He had found the back entrance but the problem was there was a guard there. Of course, the place would be guarded, if it wasn't they would be very good guards. Unknows to Sorey there was a figure watching him from above. That figure was Lunnare.

"I found you side dish" he chuckled looking down on him.

"And it seems like your alone, perfect. No distra-" Lunnare stopped talking as he saw the last person he wanted to see walking up behind him along with others.

"Damnt, there here too. I won't be able to do anything with them around. Looks like the princess life is safe, for now at least". With that said Lunnare left. Sorey was still looking at the guard thinking of some way to get in. He didn't know that there was someone walking up to him.

"Hmmm, it wouldn't be good but maybe I can knock him out" Sorey said.

"But to do that you would have to get behind him" Rose said resting her chin in the crook of his neck.

"Yea your right maybe-" he stopped as he finally realized the presence behind him. He yelled surprised and fell down on some of the boxes. Rose was laughing holding her stomach at Sorey's reaction.

"Rose what the heck!" Sorey yelled surprised. He wasn't expecting her to find him already.

"If that's how you sneak around you should never look for a job in espionage" she giggled. She put her hand out to him as she helped him up. He dusted himself off still looking upset.

"Oh, c'mon it was just a joke". She grabbed his hand leading him to the guard by the gate.

"Wait Rose I don't think-"

"Don't worry our guild actually provided service for the ceremony so we have an all access pass in". Rose brought out her letter and handed it to the guard. He read it and gave it back to Rose as he stepped aside letting the two enter.

"See told you" she smiled. Sorey couldn't help the smirk that came on his face. She was truly a woman of many talents. Rose led Sorry through the many corridors until they finally came into the place where the ceremony was being held. People were gathered all around. It seems that some people were also attempting to pull the sword out the pedestal. Sorey looked around and spotted Mikleo as he waved him over.

"Yo Mik so what's the situation" Sorey asked.

"Well the pulling of the sword is pretty much over" Mikleo said.

"Damnt! Isnt there-"

"But maybe she can help". Mikleo pointed to Alisha who was sitting down with an intimidating woman with long pink hair. Alisha looked to be talking to her about something important.

"This is great, she's safe and maybe she can let us have a go at the sword!" Sorey exclaimed.

"We'll have to wait though looks like she's getting ready to speak" Mikleo pointed out. The pink haired woman stood up from her seat next to Alisha and walked up next to the altar. She cleared her voice before speaking to the people.

"Attention citizens of Lady Lake. Your princess Alisha now wishes to speak!". They all quieted down as Alisha stood up and walked next to her mouthing thanks before looking upon the big crowd within the place.

"Thank you all for attending today's events, I know the times haven't been easy on us considering recent events". She looked upon the people of Lady lake as they gave her their full attention. They weren't looking all that well, the war has taken a toll on everyone, if not physically then mentally. Lady lake still has food but for how long. The crops are dying and market prices are rising, it's getting more and more expensive to get food. Then there's feeding the soldiers, that is high priority as well. Things were not looking well at all which is why Alisha decided to have the festival. The counsel wanted to not hold the festival they were against it all and wanted nothing to do with it, but Alisha was not holding back and with enough convincing was able to get a little more than half the counsel on their side to approve the festival.

"But in times like this I feel it is especially important to have our cultural traditions and celebrations. We won't let anything stop us, we are people of Hyland!". The crowd cheered at Alisha's speech shouting in agreement with her.

"Wow powerful " Sorey said clapping his hand. Sorey looked to Rose and saw she wasn't looking very joyful, she was staring intensely at Alisha.

"The festival isn't bad but the princess is a bit naive" Rose said. Sorey was surprised by her response.

"Why you say that?" Sorey wondered.

"The festival isn't a bad idea as it will surely bring up spirits, but not many will see it that way" Mikleo commented.

"Why do you say that?" Sorey asked. Rose couldn't help but chuckle at Mikleo.

"When did you get so knowledgeable so quickly" Rose asked.

"Well not being seen by people lets you eavesdrop on them" Mikleo responded smirking.

"Well is someone going to let me know what's wrong" Sorey asked looking at the two.

"What Alisha is doing is not bad but not everyone is going to feel a festival is the right thing to be doing at the moment" Mikleo explained.

"If you knew that you didn't have much income, food, or a job at the moment and we're depending on what the royal family was going to do. Would you be happy knowing they decided to throw a festival to improve morale instead of putting those funds to good use" Rose explained. Sorey looked back at the crowd trying to get a read for the crowd and he could see that most people were happy but a few faces spoke otherwise.

"I can see what you're saying, but she only means well". Sorey looked towards her smiling face as the people cheered her on.

"Yes, she only means well, but it seems she not willing to look at the full picture. Hyland isn't in the best of shape, everyone has their own take on what to do, and I'm sure the counsel we're going back and forth with deciding on the festival as well".

"Looks like being a princess isn't easy is it". Sorey only hoped what she was doing would turn out well for her.

"The world isn't so black and white. There's always that large gray area, and once you're in that area it's up to you to decide whether what your doing is right or not" Rose finished.

"Yea well it may not be the opinion of everybody but at least she's making this crowd happy".

"Well that much I can agree with I guess" Rose smiled. They stopped talking as they saw the pink haired lady walk up to the altar with a torch.

"Now everyone we shall make a prayer to the lady of the lake as we give her an offering in hopes she brings longing prosperity. Lady Maltran shall now light the flame as I give her the offering". Lady Maltran lit the altar up, it's vibrant flames casting a warm glow. Alisha walked up to the altar and threw what looked like a robe in the altar burning the cloth. Alisha closed her eyes as she gave a silent prayer to the flames, it seems everyone else was doing the same except for one. Sorey took notice quickly, he was giving off a very off-putting Aura. It seemed that Mikleo and Rose noticed too.

"That guy seems off" Rose said.

"I agree" Mikleo said. The man pushed through the crowd looking very angry. He drew something from out his pocket and threw it at Alisha. Luckily Lady matron caught the rock that was aimed at Alisha. Alisha looked back surprised at what just happened.

"Who dares to do harm against their princess!" Lady Maltron yelled. The Hyland guards immediately moved in on the crowd pushing them back to keep the princess safe but this also added fire to the situation.

"This prayer isn't going to get our jobs back or feed my children. Instead of wasting time on the festival you royals should be fixing our problems!" He yelled. Sorey couldn't help but notice his eyes go red for a second. It seemed like he was exuding a dark aura, it seemed to be affecting the rest of the people as they started to get rowdy as well.

"He's right! My daughter is sick and I can't afford the medicine to treat her" another yelled as his eyes went red as well. Soon some of the crowd started protesting as well.

"Everyone please calm down, there's no need for this" Alisha yelled. She couldn't believe things suddenly took a turn for the worse.

"Guys is it just me or does this seem unnatural" Sorey commented.

"Your right, some of the people in there don't seem right". Rose said looking upon the crowd.

"It started with that one there, he seems to be the cause for this" Mikleo pointed out at the man. He was at the head of all this.

"I've had enough!" The man charged through the crowd and tried to get past the guard but they shoved him back knocking him to the ground. And that's when all hell broke loose, the other people couldn't see it but Sorey, Rose, and Mikleo could definitely see the man suddenly undergo a transformation. He grew 3 times his size with fur covering every inch of his body along with his head turning into one of a wolf. He got back up and pushed his way past the guards towards Alisha. Lady Maltran stepped in front of him blocking his advance with her Lance. She was doing a good job of stopping him but it didn't seem it would last for long.

"Guys we got to-" Sorey started but was cut off as winds started blowing around the room causing even more of a disturbance. Flames started erupting around the decorations as well.

"What the hell is going on!" Rose yelled stunned by recent events.

"Mikleo put out those fires, Rose try and see if u can get those people out of her. I'll deal with the wolf guy!" Sorey took off quickly to help Lady Maltron.

"Since when was he deemed boss". Mikleo complained quickly getting to work on putting out the fires.

"He beat us to the punch". Rose moved into the crowd and started to direct everyone to the exit.

"Everybody please move to the exit!" She yelled. The crowd seemed to listen as they started to move to the exit only to stop when they saw one of the flaming banners start to come down. Rose gasped when she saw a small boy was directly under the falling banner. She ran as fast as she could and grabbed the child's arm quickly pulling him back before the banner could hit him. Rose sighed in relief as she saw the child wasn't harmed in anyway.

"You okay" she asked. The child nodded and gave her a hug. She patted his head comforting the scared child. She picked him up as she and the rest of the crowd had backed up from the door. She looked back and saw the back exit was also riddled with fire as well. There was currently no escape at the moment.

"Mikleo the flames!" She said yelling to him. She saw that he was trying to put out the flames but to no avail.

"These aren't normal flames I can't put them out!" Mikleo yelled back. He couldn't put them out but he was trying his best to suppress it down. Lady Maltron couldn't hold against the wolf any longer as it finally pushed through and hit her out of the way causing her to hit the altar knocking her out. He moved in on Alisha who was backing up fearful. She had not brought her Lance so she could not defend herself at the moment.

"Now princess feel what I feel!" He yelled swiping down at Alisha. She braced for impact but felt nothing. She opened her eyes surprised and saw a familiar blue trench.

"Sorey!" She shouted surprised. Sorey held his blade against the wolves claws but to Alisha it looked like he was pressing down on Sorey's blade. He broke their deadlock and hit the wolf in the stomach hard enough to send him tumbling to the ground.

"Alisha go help Lady Maltron!" Sorey shouted out her. She nodded and went to help up lady Maltron.

"Alisha call your guards to take care of that guy. He's not normal, and needs to be taken care of with extreme caution!". Alisha nodded firmly as she realized it too. She found it strange the man's strength. He can't be a normal man especially with the way he took down lady Maltron.

"Guards apprehend that man but be careful!" She ordered. The guards went to work to stop the man.

"Sir stand down now before we have to use lethal force!" One of them yelled. The wolf got back up and snarled at the guard before punching him sending him flying across the room. He laughed as he did this making the other guards fearful.

"Oh no, they can't stop him" Rose said worried. The child in her arms squirmed to look at what was happening. His eyes widened in shock at what he was seeing.

"Miss why does he look like a wolf" he questioned his gaze on the wolfman. Rose looked at him stunned.

"What you can see him!?" She was surprised she thought normal people couldn't see hellions.

"What the hell are you!" One of them yelled in fear as he stabbed at the wolf but to no avail did it work. He smiled and broke his Lance into two. The Hyland guard fell back in fear of this monster.

"Shit! I can't beat him like this, what do I do" Sorey muttered trying to think of a solution. He looked to Mikleo who was still trying his best to put out the fires and then to Rose who was protecting a small child in her arms while trying to help out the crowd. Sorey looked towards the sword and then remembered something his grandpa had told him and Mikleo.

"Hellions can only be defeated by purification" he said. He walked towards the sword and put his hands on the hilt. Alisha looked towards Sorey and saw him out his hands on the sword.

"Sorey, could you be the one" she muttered.

Mikleo looked towards Sorey. He realized what he was trying to do.

"Purification is the only thing that can defeat hellions! Pull the sword Sorey!" Mikleo yelled.

"Sorey you got this!" Rose yelled from across the room. He looked towards his two friends and nodded.

"Oh know you don't!" The monster started running towards Sorey. Alisha saw this and picked up lady Maltron staff and she blocked his advance. She struggled to hold him back. But it was enough time for Sorey to pull the sword.

"Go Sorey, you were destined to pull the sword!" Alisha yelled.

Sorey grunted as he struggled to pull the sword as it wasn't moving. He tried putting more and more strength but it just wasn't moving. He looked to Alisha and saw she was losing the battle against the wolf hellion fast. His face determined looked down at the sword and pulled again with all his might but still to no avail.

"Please sword come out! I'm' not looking for anything else but to save my friends! Even if I'm not destined to become Shepherd it doesn't matter, just let me use your power to save the lives in this room!". Sorey suddenly stopped pulling as he realized he wasn't in the room anymore. He looked around and saw nothing.

"What the he-". He was interrupted as he heard somebody walking towards him. He turned around and saw a beautiful woman walking towards him. Her skin was pale with a gold headband adorning her hair which was in a pony tail that looked as soft as silk. She wore a long red, white, black and lavender dress along with red heels that click clacked as she walked towards Sorey.

"Hello there" she greeted Sorey bowing.

"My name is Lailiah, or as others have called me the lady of the lake". Sorey was still stunned at what was happening. She chuckled at his face.

"Excuse me you still there" she giggled. Sorey shaked his head remembering what he was here for.

"Lady of the lake I need your help!" Sorry said urgently.

"Yes I know, I heard the commotion from outside. It seems things are not playing out well" she deduced looking sad.

"Then you know they must be purified, lend me your power please Lady of the lake!" Sorey begged hoping she would.

"You know I've been waiting for a hundred years for the next Shepard to come. But I haven't found anyone worthy of holding this power, they just wanted power or glory. They would never have known what this power is actually meant for, but you do" she smiled at the determined look on Sorey's face. From the moment he touched the sword she could tell he had a very good heart. There was no detection of malevolence in his heart. Her smiled changed to frown as memories of the past Shepard flooded her mind. He may be pure of heart but even the purest of people can be twisted from the inside, she doesn't want to see that happen to him but the world needs a Shepherd. She has to trust that he will be the one.

"Sorey I will lend you my power but I must let you know something about this power you will hold" she explained.

"I'm sorry lady of the lake but I don't have time my friends!"

"Do not worry, this place has no concept of time. I need to let you know the burden you will be taking upon your shoulders. You will hold great power and will be able to purify the hellions, but you must understand you cannot use your powers for your own personal gains nor can you involve yourself in matters that the Shepard has no place in. This will cause conflict in heart as you have to decide what is right or wrong. You will have to live with the impact of those decisions. The Shepherd is a very vital role, your purpose from now on will be to keep the world in balance. Are you prepared for this Sorey?" Lailah finished explaining waiting for his response.

"I was already prepared to do this when I came here. I shall shoulder the burden that comes with being the Shepard. I Sorey Whick promise you that!" He said confidently. Lailah nodded smiling. She held out her hands and motioned for Sorey to grab them. Sorey moved towards her and grabbed both of her hands.

"Use this power wisely Sorey, for you are now part of a great line of heroes. I trust you to get the job done just like the others". There was a big glow blinding Sorey. Sorry opened back up his eyes and saw he was back in the room. Alisha was still holding back the hellion but quickly failing to do so. Sorey realized he was holding the sword in his hands. He had done it, he had become the Shepherd.

" _Now Sorey, you can finally purify that Hellion_ " a voice in his head said. It must have been the lady of the lake that was speaking to him.

"Alisha move now!" Sorey yelled charging at the beast. Alisha moved allowing Sorey to attack the beast. The blunt side of the blade hit him in his snout stopping his advance. He held his nose in pain. Sorey then kicked him off the platform and advanced on him not giving him any room to attack back. Everyone else looked at him in wonder. It was an astonishing sight him fighting against the wolf, but the surprise that took everyone by storm was him wielding the legendary sword.

"He's wielding it!" Someone in the crowd shouted.

"Hems the one, the Shepherd has come!" Another person praised. Rose smirked as she looked on at Sorey. She knew he was the one to become the Shepard, her gut was never wrong.

"Well I'll be" Mikleo chuckled from his spot. He looked back and noticed the fire was finally dissipating. Sorey must have made it easier to put out now.

"How is this possible!" The monster snarled on the ground. Before he could get up Sorey put his boot on to his neck holding him down.

" _Sorey listen to me_ ". Sorey heard Lailah's voice in his head. " _Sorey when to comes to purification you must strike with the intent to free his soul rather than trying to hit your opponent. I wish we could have practiced this some more but you only got this once chance"._

"Strike with the intent to save him" Sorey said. He closed his eyes and focused muttering the mantra over and over until he felt this strange feeling. He knew now he could save this soul. He rose the sword as blue flames gathered around it. Then he struck down slashing at the wolf. Everyone around him gasped surprised.

"Oh no Sorey". Rose shielded the child's eyes as he did not need to see this. She couldn't blame Sorey for doing it but she hadn't really expected that from him.

"Sorey" Mikleo muttered. He had finally put out all the flames in the room. He watched Sorey plunge his sword into the wolf man. Mikleo couldn't believe what he was seeing. Sorry had just killed a man.

"Done" Sorey said. He was panting exhausted at the events that just took place, the power he had was amazing. He couldn't believe the rush he felt fighting the wolf.

"I understand Lailah, this power can be dangerous in the wrong hands" Sorey said.

" _But in the right hands it shall do good, look_ " the wolf man started to change back to his normal human self. Sorey smiled as he was glad he was able to purify a hellion. He looked to the stunned crowd who were still trying to grasp what had just happened. It wasn't until a woman in the crowd knelt down bowing at him that they rest followed with the exception of Rose.

"Ah people please there's no need to-" Sorey topped talking as he suddenly felt dizzy. He dropped the sword and fell down on his butt.

"Sorey!" Rose rushed to his aid as she put the kid down near him. She got behind him and held him up.

"Mister, are you okay" the boy asked innocently.

"Yea just a bit dizzy" he laughed. "Question is are you fine?"

"Yea, thanks to miss" he smiled at Rose. Rose smiled back at the sweet child.

"Where are your parents?" Sorey asked struggling to stay awake.

"I came here by myself, they were busy with work and I wanted to come see the festival".

"What's your name kid?" Rose asked from behind Sorey still keeping him upright.

"My name is Leon" he said.

"Leon you know coming here by yourself was dangerous right. Your parents must be worried sick. Imagine how they would have reacted if you got seriously hurt" Rose scolded him. He looked down in shame feeling guilty as he knew she was right. Sorey smiled at the boy as he remembered he had the same look on his face when he'd get into trouble.

"Hey but the important part is your safe" Sorey said to the boy. He motioned for him to come closer which he did. He patted his head and give him a big smile. The boys mood seemed to have brighten up at Sorey's comfort.

"Now I need to take a nap cause I d-" Sorry couldn't finish his words as his head slumped onto Rose. She panicked a bit as she saw he was out cold.

"Sorey you ok? Sorey!" She yelled again. Still no response but she did hear breathing so it seemed like he was ok, just tired. She smiled seeing he was just tired. She allowed him to relax on to her body more as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

"Of course, he fell asleep, I wouldn't expect any different" Mikleo laughed as he walked to Rose.

"Oh leave him alone, let him have this" Rose scolded playfully.

"What he can't even hear me" Mikleo joked. Rose shaked her head at his antics. The young boy looked oddly at Rose wondering what and who she was talking too, he thought about asking but decided to just leave it alone.

"Rose!". Rose turned her head as she heard her name being called. She saw it was princess Alisha running towards her.

"Is he okay?" Alisha looking at the sleeping Sorey.

"Yea he's fine just exhausted" she reassured him. She breathed a sigh of relief hearing that.

"It's hard to believe but Sorey is the Shepherd" Alisha said.

"Yep that he is" Rose said fondly looking down at him.

"We should probably move him to somewhere where he can get some rest don't you think" Alisha said.

"Yea that'd be best wouldn't it".

"I'll have some guards help carry him to a local inn, I would love to talk with you Rose but I have to attend to the people here" she said.

"Oh do you mind personally seeing Leon back to his family". She nodded at the boy Leon who was clutching at her shirt. Alisha nodded confirming she would.

"Leon be a good boy for me ok". Leon nodded at Rose's words before hugging her tightly and moving to stand by Alisha.

"Tell Mr Shepherd I said thanks" Leon said.

"Sure will!" Rose smiled back.

 **Well the long awaited moment is here! Sorey is finally the Shepherd and the chapter is finally out. Im not gonna lie to you, I was going through things and sort of lost the passion to write this story. The things going on in my personal life have gotten better but I cannont promise that I will be able to release the next chap so soon but im glad I was able to release this chapter for everyone to read. Well until next time!**


	7. Discontinued

Hello guys i got some bad news….im gonna have to stop writing Tales of Two. I know im just like everyone else who abandons their stories but as i was writing up two new chapters for the story, i realised too myself that the direction i was taking the story in was not too my liking. At first i was just writing a story where i would just ship Sorey and Rose like crazy but i honestly felt that type of writing was better left to something like one shots. I started this story with the sake of shipping and i felt that i could do more but i saw what i was doing was gonna lead the story into something i would not like to write and something you as the reader would hate to read. The story was getting to be more of a chore rather than something i couldn't wait to put out. I felt happiest the most when i would just write Sorey and Rose doing banter or just things together, i realized that a long story isn't what i should be doing. Which leads to my next thing. I plan on discontinuing the story and just write one shots of Sorey and Rose, it's basically gonna be a story of random oneshots where i just write anything about our two lovable characters, this way i don't have to worry about what i'll write next when it can be just be about anything…..and i mean ANYTHING….PG 13 of course :-). So regarding the story of Tales of Two for those who are disappointed, i apologize that i never updated and that i am abandoning the story, but if there is anyone out there that wants to take up this story then PM me and i will gladly give the reins. I think it'd be cool if someone wanted to take my story and make it better. Well until next time guys, watch out for my new story on these two.


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